
MOM 


























PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


looses of 

St. (Klijaiieflj Series 

tf* 

Each i vol., small quarto, illustrated and deco- 
rated in colour. $1*00 

The Roses of Saint £lizabeth 

By JANE SCOTT WOODRUFF 

Gabriel and the Hour Book 

By EVALEEN STEIN 

The Enchanted Automobile 

Translated from the French by 
MARY J. SAFFORD 

Pussy-Cat Town 

By MARION AMES TAGGART 

♦J* 

L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 

New England Building 
BOSTON, MASS. 




rbey progressed comfortably , hearing wi thout difficulty the 
story of the founding of Purringtond ’ 


(See Page iqo ) 


iKosrs of St. ®li|afietij Series 


^ussp-Cat 

Count 

BY 

illation antes* Caggatt 

ILLVSTRJtTED 1M COLOURS BY 

Hetieeea Cljase 



2L. ©♦ Jlafle & Company 





Olr^b 





COLONIAL PRESS 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H . Simonds Sr Co. 
Boston, U. S. A. 


To my comforting cats , Bandersnatch- 
Bandarlog and Kiku-san , sitting close to me 
now and always when I write; to the 
memory of my wise Tommy T raddles; to 
Bidelia Pur play W.; to Wutz-Butz and 
Madam Laura K., all “really and truly ” 
catSy this book is dedicated by their humble 
admirer 


JHarton &mes Caggart 





CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 


I. 

Ban-Ban, the Bold .... 

i 

II. 

Six Small Cats Do Great Things . 

24 

III. 

The Purrers of Purrington 

45 

IV. 

A Five O’clock Catnip Tea . 

66 

V. 

The Scampishness of Scamp . 

87 

VI. 

Mrs. Brindle Brings Startling News 

107 

VII. 

They Fought Like Cats and Dogs! 

126 

VIII. 

Ban-Ban and Kiku-san form an 



Embassy 

146 

IX. 

Visitors to Purrington 

164 

X. 

The Purrers Bestow the Freedom of 



Purrington ..... 

184 

XI. 

An Election and a Defection . 

204 

XII. 

Wedding-bells and Brief Farewells 

224 









































LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

“ They progressed comfortably, hearing without diffi- 
culty the story of the founding of Purrington ” ( see 


page iqo) .... 



Frontispiece 

Nugget 




8 

Puttel 




9 

Dolly Varden .... 




17 

“ ‘ I have had a Great Idea ’ ” 




18 

Singing the Song .... 




23 

One of the Stranger Cats 




27 

“Little Dolly Varden fell asleep” . 




3i 

“ S. Katz. Fresh Mice Daily” 




49 

“ The shout of welcome which all the Purrers 

of Purring- 


ton raised ” . . . . 




59 

“ A long, creamy, blessed drink” . 




61 

“ One came to town with five kittens ! ” 




68 

“ A small, gray cat called Posty ” . 




68 

The Dance 




82 

“ Scamp looked him over scornfully ” 




100 

“ Licking him frantically ” 




109 

“ Ready to pounce ”... 




133 

“ Each with a cat on his back ” 




136 

“ The cats watched the retreat ” 




142 

“ They sat for a time resting ” 




144 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


“ Kiku-san came and rubbed his cheek against 

Tommy’s” 160 

“ Their speed increased ” 165 

“ She gathered, the happy, purring white creature into 

her arms ” . 170 

“ A black cat played the violin” 201 

“ Bidelia sobbed ” 220 

“ Had often sat on a big volume of Shakespeare . 226 

“ It was a most beautiful sight ” 238 


Pussy - Cat Town 


CHAPTER I. 

BAN-BAN, THE BOLD 

E was really very beautiful. 
H igh-born, too, — a pure 
Maltese ! He had a short, 
saucy face; a square lit- 
tle nose, with which he 
was apt to pry into other people’s 
business; and he saw everything 
with his bright eyes, and under- 
stood most things with his quick 
wit. But he had almost no pa- 
tience at all, and he was as full 
of pranks as a monkey — indeed, 
that’s what gave him his name. 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


A boy ? Mercy, no ! Who- 
ever heard of a pure Maltese 
boy ? A cat, of course, but such 
a beauty! He was as quick as 
he could be, and ran very fast, 
and jumped like a flash — flashes 
do jump, so that’s all right. Did 
you never see a flash of lightning 
jump from one cloud to another ? 
Well, this Maltese kitten was 
so quick that his little master 
called him Bandersnatch — out 
of “ Through the Looking-Glass,” 
you know, where the White 
King says: “You might as well 
try to catch a Bandersnatch,” or, 
in another place : “You might 
as well try to stop a Bander- 
snatch.” So that is where quick 
little Ban-Ban got his first name. 
And the second Ban was short 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


for Bandarlog, the name of the 
monkey people in the Jungle 
Book, because he was so much 
more like a monkey than a quiet, 
purry, furry, mild-mannered kitten. 

Ban-Ban had the very best 
home a cat could have ; indeed, 
he was a good deal spoiled. In 
this home he grew up to be three 
years old, but it was only his 
body that grew bigger. Inside 
that Maltese body he wore a kit- 
ten’s heart, getting younger every 
minute, loving play better, and 
cutting up more didoes all the 
time, instead of settling down 
into a staid cat, as any one would 
have expected him to do who saw 
the purple shades in his dark 
gray suit ! 

Now Ban-Ban loved his little 

3 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


master very much — not that he 
ever thought of him as his “ mas- 
ter ; ” no cat ever would admit 
having a master. Ban-Ban con- 
sidered the little boy as a friend 
whom he, a prince of the Maltese 
Royal Family, allowed to play 
with him. He was more useful 
than kitten friends because he 
could open doors, drag strings 
around, hide sticks under the 
edges of rugs, get milk from the 
refrigerator, cut up meat, play 
hide-and-go-seek better than cats, 
and shake up soft knitted things 
into fine beds on cold days, be- 
sides scratching a person under 
the chin and on the side of the 
cheek in a way that made a per- 
son stick out his little red tongue 
and purr, no matter how much he 
4 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


felt like playing. But that is not 
having a master ; that is really 
keeping a very useful and devoted 
servant. Ban-Ban hated of all 
things to show that he loved little 
Rob ; he liked to pretend that he 
was only polite to him, and often, 
when he meant to get up in Rob’s 
lap for a little talk, if Rob saw 
him coming, Ban-Ban would sit 
down and wash his face, trying to 
look as if he had never once 
thought of being loving. You 
see he was independent. 

Because he was independent, 
and so very impatient, it all came 
about. 

One day Ban-Ban had an idea 
dart into his brain. Ban-Ban’s 
ideas always darted, they never 
came slowly; they were just like 
5 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


everything else about him, “ as 
fast as a Bandersnatch.” “If two- 
legged people can build towns 
and live in them without asking 
the help of us cats, why can’t we 
cats have a town of our own, and 
not ask the help of the two-legged 
people ? They are more clumsy 
and stupid than we are — except 
Rob ; he isn’t clumsy or stupid.” 

It was such a wonderful thought 
that it half-stunned even Ban-Ban. 
For as much as five minutes he 
sat perfectly still, with only the 
tippest tip of his tail moving. 
Then he started up with a leap, 
as if he were jumping after those 
lost five minutes just as he jumped 
for butterflies, and away he ran 
down the garden to find some of 
his friends. + 


6 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Bidelia was one of these 
friends. She was a little creature, 
very young, a tortoise-shell cat, not 
pretty, but so clever that no one 
who didn’t know her could believe 
how clever she was. Her cat 
acquaintances suspected that she 
wrote stories on the sly, for her 
sides were always spattered with 
big black spots on a yellow 
ground, and her friends believed 
she got ink on her yellow clothes 
writing stories for the magazines, 
because she was so very clever, 
and people who are very clever 
and write books are apt to be 
untidy with their ink. 

Though she was younger than 
Ban-Ban by nearly two years she 
had three children, and they were 
already two months old: Nugget, 
7 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


all yellow, Puttel, black with a 
white thumb-mark under her chin, 
and Dolly Varden, with a tortoise- 
shell dress like her mother’s. Bi- 



Nagget. 

delia had good reason to be as 
proud of her children as she was ! 

Another of Ban-Ban’s friends 
was Mr. Thomas Traddles, a 
tiger cat, who was so wise and 
had such remarkable judgment 
that every one came to him for 
advice. He was older than Ban- 
8 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Ban, and he was one of that 
queer sort of friends which we all 
have : people whom we do not 
really like, but whom we respect 



Puttel, 


heaps and heaps, and without 
whom we cannot get along. Not 
that there was any reason why 
Ban-Ban should not like Tommy 
T raddles ; his disposition was 
perfect, and his manners of the 
best. Perhaps it was because 
Tom was so sensible and grave, 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


and Ban-Ban was such a little 
firebrand, for we none of us really 
like people who make us feel 
that we are in the wrong, not 
unless we are far more humble- 
minded folk than was proud little 
Ban-Ban. 

There, too, was Wutz-Butz, 
whose name didn’t mean much, 
but that the little girl who owned 
him liked to mix up letters and call 
him by queer sounds. He was a 
gray and white cat who would let 
the little girl whom he thought 
he owned, but who thought that 
she owned him, do anything under 
the sun to him, and he would 
stand it with a perfect mush of 
patience, but out among the cats 
he was a warrior. He fought 
every one that he happened to 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


dislike, and Ban-Ban was always 
thankful Wutz-Butz liked him — 
and Ban-Ban was not a coward, 
either. Wutz-Butz had a big, round 
head, and a short, thick-set body, 
and his complexion was apt to 
get rumpled up — can complex- 
ions get rumpled ? Well, at any 
rate this cat’s complexion looked 
rumpled — because of the many 
strong arguments he had with 
Ruth’s grandmother’s big white 
cat with the gray ears. Ruth was 
the little girl who owned Wutz- 
Butz, or whom he owned, accord- 
ing to whether you believe from 
her or his side of the question. 

Ban-Ban had another friend to 
whom he was bound by ties of 
the highest respect and gratitude. 
This was Madam Laura, a sweet, 


ii 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


kindly middle-aged lady, — per- 
haps a trifle past middle age, — 
to whom all the cats went for 
comfort and teaching. She was 
a widow lady, so she wore a great 
deal of black over her white sides 
and back, laid on in big spots. 
She had had a great many sons 
and daughters, but they had all 
gone to make their own way in 
the world, and Madam Laura 
was said to be quite wealthy, with 
no one dependent upon her for 
mice. She was a cat with a 
mother’s heart for all the mewing 
world, and no cat could be so 
scratchy as not to love this gentle 
lady. 

The last and dearest of Ban- 
Ban’s friends was Kiku, the snow 
white cat, whose name was a 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Japanese word that means chrys- 
anthemum, and whose nature was 
as flower-like as his name. He 
lived next door to Ban-Ban, and 
played with him most of the time. 
H is little mistress was Rob’s 
dearest friend, his cousin, and her 
name was Lois. She was a year 
younger than Rob, which made 
her only seven years old, but she 
was not the least bit careless or 
rough with her pets, as some chil- 
dren are, and Kiku was a very 
lucky “ kitteny-wink, little white 
lambkin,” as Lois called him. 

Kiku was always called “Kiku- 
san,” because “ san ” is a mark of 
honour among the Japanese, and 
white Kiku was so gentle and 
lovely-mannered that no one could 
deny him the respectful title that 
13 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


his Japanese name suggested. 
Kiku-san wore white garments 
with pink trimmings, and he kept 
them snowy white, for he only 
went out to play in the grass in 
fine weather, and slept at night 
cuddled close in Lois’s arms. He 
puckered his mouth when he was 
spoken to, and brought his lids 
down over his amber eyes as if 
he knew he was most sweet and 
lovable, fully deserving all the 
praise which he received — and 
so he did, for nothing would 
tempt him to scratch ; he never 
lost his temper, unless he had lost 
it for good and all when he was 
born, and had never found it 
again, which seemed to be the 
case, for no one had ever seen 
him cross. 


14 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


These were Ban-Ban’s friends, 
and it was to find them, or all 
of them that he could find, that 
he ran so fast down the garden 
after his wonderful idea struck 
him. ■* 

He came upon Bidelia, who 
was sitting in the sunshine letting 
the children play with her tail. 

“ Oh, Bidelia ! ” cried Ban- Ban, 
“ have you seen any of the 
others ? ” 

“ How out of breath you are ! ” 
said Bidelia, reproachfully. She 
was so little that she could jump 
about all day and never lose her 
breath. “ T ommy T raddles is 
sunning himself on the fence. 
Madam Laura is singing a few 
Felines on the garden bench.” A 
Feline is a kind of cat hymn. 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Do you think you could trust 
one of the kittens to hunt up 
Wutz-Butz, and Kiku-san, and 
ask them to join us here ? I 
have something catelovelant to 
tell them,” said Ban- Ban. “ Cate- 
lovelant ” means “ lovely for cats.” 

“ I think N ugget could go ; he 
is getting very plump and relia- 
ble,” returned Bidelia. “ Puttel, 
go and ask Madam Laura if she 
would kindly come over here when 
she has finished her Felines. 
And, Dolly Varden, go waken 
Mr. Traddles and ask him to 
come. If he is very sound asleep 
you may stand up on your hind 
legs and pull his tail — very 
gently,” she added, as Dolly spun 
around three times rapidly, “and 
with the greatest respect.” 

16 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


The three kittens scampered 
off, and Ban- Ban with much effort 
kept himself from pouring out to 
Bidelia the Great Idea. Fortu- 
nately the kittens so quickly got 



Dolly Varden. 


together the cats for whom they 
were sent that Ban- Ban was saved 
from choosing between telling or 
having a fit. 

“You had something to say 
to us, my dear ? ” hinted Madam 
Laura after they were all seated. 
Her voice sounded like rolls of 
17 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


butter rolling, it was so soft and 
smooth. 

“Yes,” said Ban-Ban, his fur 
beginning to stick up all over and 
his tail to swell, as it always did 
when he was excited. “ I have 
had a Great Idea.” 

“You were clever from your 
kittenhood, Bannie,” said Madam 
Laura, who had known his grand- 
mother. 

“ Human beings,” Ban-Ban con- 
tinued, trying to keep back the 
little puffing spits which he often 
gave when he was stirred, “ Human 
beings build towns and live in 
them. They never ask our help ; 
they feel that they own the towns. 
Very likely they do; but as their 
cats always own the human 
beings, it doesn’t matter. What 

18 



“ ‘ / have bad a Great Idea 


9 99 









































































































✓ 




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t 







































f I 











PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


I have to suggest is that there is 
no reason why cats should not 
build and own a city just as the 
human beings do. I think that 
we should be the ones to do this. 
Let us, all of us here, go away to 
some lovely spot and build a city. 
Let us ask all the poor, homeless 
cats, who don’t own any human 
beings, and so have very little 
food and no warm places to 
live, to join us. Let us have a 
city of cats, and let us hand our 
names down in all future cate- 
gories and catalogues and his- 
tories as the Fathers — and 
Mothers ” — he added, bowing 
to Madam Laura and Bidelia — 
“ of Our Country, Glory of Our 
Race.” 

“Hear, hear!” cried Wutz- 
19 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Butz. He pronounced it : “ He-ar, 
He-ar!” It sounded like a 
mew. 

“ Bandersnatch- Bandarlog, you 
are indeed A Great Mind,” said 
Tommy Traddles, gravely. 

“It will be lovely!” cried 
Bidelia, joyously. “ I want a 
more extended field.” 

“ And more field-mice,” added 
Laura, who was not clever, only 
good, which is better than mere 
cleverness, as all properly taught 
cats know. 

“ Then you agree ? ” asked 
Ban-Ban, not able, this time, to 
keep from ending in a “ P-pst ! ” 
of pure excitement. 

“ Y es, yes,” cried all the cats 
together. 

“Yes,” added Kiku-san alone, 
20 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ but I am afraid that Lois will 
need me.” 

“ Our human beings will soon 
get other cats,” said Ban-Ban, 
wisely. “ I have always noticed 
they soon get another cat to wait 
upon, when they lose the one they 
have had. Not that I shall leave 
Rob long without me,” he added. 
“ Rob and I are friends. But 
the founding of this city is a duty ; 
it will be a haven for oppressed 
cats. When shall we go ? ” 

“ On the third day from this 
one,” said Tommy Traddles, 
promptly. “In the meantime we 
will eat all that we can, and get 
together as many provisions as we 
can carry.” 

“ Before we part,” said Bidelia, 
“let us sing a song. Wait; I 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


will make one for this occa- 
sion.” 

It was the custom of these cats 
to sing each night before separat- 
ing, so the others all willingly sat 
down to wait while Bidelia wrote 
the words which were to com- 
memorate their newly taken and 
important resolution. 

Soon that clever little cat an- 
nounced the song ready, and they 
sang the following words to the 
air of the “ Battle Hymn of the 
Republic : ” 


“We’ll put our fur in order and brave Pilgrim- 
cats we’ll be ; 

With whiskers out and tails erect we’ll march 
courageously. 

We’ll found a town for other cats, less fortunate 
than we : 

Each cat shall have his day ! 

22 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ We love the friends that love us, and our 
hearts to them are true ; 

We’ll ne’er forget the kindly folk beside whose 
hearths we grew, 

But though our friends are good to us, mankind 
is cruel, too : 

Each cat must have his day ! 



Singing the song. 


“ Then, onward, Pilgrim-cats, nor pause to cast a 
look behind, 

For duty calls our velvet paws our kindred’s 
wounds to bind ; 

In Pussy Town all homeless cats a home and 
peace may find : 

Each cat shall have his day.” 

+ 


23 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER II. 

SIX SMALL CATS DO GREAT 
THINGS 

HREE days later the 

moon looked down on 

a more wonderful sight 
than she had seen since 
the cow had jumped over her, — 
more wonderful even than she 

had seen then, for this sight was 

much more than one cat with a 
fiddle. 

Six cats and three kittens led a 
procession of at least a dozen 
more cats out of the town and 
along the wooded country roads. 
Ban-Ban was ahead. He had a 
2 4 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


big red bow on his collar, which 
poor Rob had tied on, intending 
the Maltese cat to look his best 
when expected company should 
come that evening. He little 
thought that he was adorning 
Ban- Ban for a journey, and a 
parting that was going to cost 
himself keen grief! 

But Ban-Ban had no room in 
his mind for Rob’s anxiety ; he 
trotted proudly along, with his 
short, velvety ears pricked up, his 
nose alert for dangers. Close 
behind him marched Wutz-Butz, 
in case he was needed for a fight. 
Tommy Traddles came next, in 
case he was needed for advice. 
Kiku-san — he wore a beautiful 
pink ribbon, because Lois loved 
to see him well dressed — Kiku 
25 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


walked between Bidelia and 
Madam Laura, the only one of 
the party with a regret. His 
thoughts dwelt on Lois, and how 
troubled she would be when he 
did not come to bed that night, 
and she could not find him in the 
morning. Behind Bidelia came 
the three kittens, driving their 
young mother half crazy with their 
antics. They would not walk 
soberly, but frisked and played, 
and ran out of sight into the 
shadow, and sometimes half-way 
up a tree, until little Bidelia was 
sure that she would be quite as 
gray as Ban-Ban, but with another 
sort of gray ness, from her worry, 
by the time she got to wherever 
they were going. 

The stranger cats walked be- 
26 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


hind their leaders. They were 
all thin and sad-looking, for they 
had had no homes, and life had 
been most hard to them. They 
were glad enough to think that 
they were on their way to make 



One of the stranger cats. 


their fortunes in a city of cats, 
where there would be no stones 
thrown, no dogs to chase them, 
no cruel boys to frighten and 
hurt them. 

The six cat leaders all carried 
something. Ban-Ban had a big 

27 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


piece of beef. He had not stolen 
it, because it had been bought for 
him, but he had whisked it out of 
the refrigerator when the cook 
left the door open for a mo- 
ment. 

Wutz-Butz had dragged along 
a piece of red flannel. He was 
inclined to be stiff in his legs 
from rheumatism and his frequent 
battles, and he had no mind to 
sleep on the cold ground, though 
many a soldier before him has 
had no better bed. 

Tommy Traddles had a pail 
of milk fastened over his shoul- 
ders, — Laura had tied it on for 
him, — and in his paws he carried 
an umbrella, because he knew 
that if it rained they would all 
hate to be out in the wet. 

28 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Bidelia, like the gay young 
thing that she was, brought only 
neck-ribbons for her children, and 
some worsted balls with which 
they — and she, too, if she would 
own it — loved to play. But 
Madam Laura, like an older and 
wiser mother, brought catnip roots, 
as well as some dried catnip to 
start on, in case the kittens were 
ill. She also had a little bottle 
of castor-oil, because she knew 
how good that was for kittens 
when they overate themselves. 

Kiku-san carried his crocheted 
shawl. It was one that had been 
dyed red, and which Lois kept in 
a rocking-chair for Kiku’s day- 
time naps. Kiku wore it now 
around his shoulders, and won- 
dered doubtfully if he could get 
29 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


another crocheted shawl in Pussy- 
Cat Town when this one was 
worn out. 

They walked and they walked 
for what seemed a long, long dis- 
tance even to the cats. As to the 
kittens, they had long ceased 
frisking, and crawled along slowly, 
mewing pathetically, and taking 
hold of Bidelia’s tail to help 
themselves as they went. 

Tommy Traddles looked 
around and saw how tired they 
were. “If some of you gentle- 
men in the back there, who have 
no food or beds to carry, would 
lay your forepaws on one another’s 
shoulders, and take turns in let- 
ting the children sit on them, you 
would be able to get the poor 
little kitlets over the ground, sav- 
3 ° 





PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


ing them suffering, and not hurt- 
ing yourselves,” he said. 

The stranger cats were glad 
to do this, though they would 
never have been wise enough to 
have invented this way of carrying 
the babies. Little Dolly Varden 
fell asleep the instant she was put 
up on the paws of a big black cat 
and a black and white one, who 
offered to carry her. “ She was 
that done out,” said the black and 
white cat. He had a kind heart, 
but his English was not very 
good, because he had learned it 
in the streets. 

It was about twenty minutes 
past ten when the cat pilgrims 
reached a lovely spot. It was a 
clearing in a wood, almost an 
acre wide. It stood right on the 
31 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


bank of a tiny stream, which 
Bidelia called a river, but which 
was really rather a small and 
quiet brook. All around this 
cleared spot were beautiful woods, 
and only a grass-grown road ran 
through it, such as is made by 
broad wagon wheels when men go 
to cut down trees in the woods. 

“ This is the very place for us,” 
declared Ban-Ban, looking around 
him with great content. 

“It isn’t far from the town,” 
objected the black cat, who was 
helping carry Dolly Varden. His 
name was ’Clipsy, short for 
Eclipse. He had not always 
been poor ; he was born in a very 
nice home, where he had been 
given his name, but he had got lost 
when he was very young, and had 
3 2 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


had a hard time ever since. He 
was a gentleman always, though ; 
the cat leaders all saw that he 
was the best of all the stranger 
cats who had joined them. 

“ I know it is not far from 
town,” said Tommy Traddles, 
planting his umbrella in the 
ground, and setting down his pail 
of milk beside it, with a wink at 
Wutz-Butz to keep his eye on 
it — no one could tell what some 
thirsty stranger cat might be 
tempted to do. “It is not far 
from town, ’Clipsy, but it is rather 
better for that. Did you never 
notice that when human beings 
have lost something they always 
look everywhere else for it before 
they look near home ? I suppose 
you haven’t noticed that, because 
33 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


you have not lived with human 
beings since you were so little, but 
it is quite true that when anything 
is lost and can’t be found, it 
always turns out that it is because 
no one looked just at hand, where 
the lost thing always hides. So 
it is better for us to settle nearer 
our old human town than to go 
away off — to another State, for 
instance.” 

There was no disputing with a 
cat that could allude so carelessly 
to “another State.” ’Clipsy at 
once gave up arguing; he didn’t 
know what “ another State ” 
meant, and he wondered greatly 
how Tommy could be so wise. 

“ Oh, it’s all right as to that,” 
said Ban-Ban, speaking in his 
quick way. He understood about 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


states, because he had so often sat 
by Rob when he was learning his 
lessons. “ I don’t think any one 
would find us in this place ; but 
I wonder if there is a good market 
here.” 

“There ought to be fish in that 
river,” said Madam Laura, who 
liked fish even better than most 
cats. “ I know how to catch fish 
with my paw.” 

“ There are fish in that stream,” 
said Tommy Traddles, decidedly. 
“ And field-mice in the woods ; 
the market here will be excellent. 
I am convinced that the guard- 
ian fairies of good cats have led 
us here. It is well to be near 
town, because our city must be 
easily reached by homeless cats 
who may wish to join us. I ad- 
35 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


vise you, my friends, to decide 
upon this spot at once as the site 
of the city. Do you agree to stay 
here ? ” 

“ Y es, yes, yes ! ” cried all the 
cats together, their voices making 
a chorus of soprano, alto, bass, 
baritone, and tenor. Even the 
kittens joined with their thin little 
pipes, though they may have been 
crying from sleepiness. 

“We’ll make a camp!” cried 
Ban-Ban, putting up his back and 
dancing around on his toes the 
way he had always done when 
Rob offered to play with him. 
“We will camp out for the night, 
and in the morning we will ask 
the carpenter cats to begin to 
build our houses.” 

“It won’t take us long,” cried 
36 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


the carpenter cats, five of the stran- 
gers who had joined the party. 

“ I told a friend of mine I 
would write at once after we 
settled on a site to let him know 
where he could join us. What are 
you going to call the town ? ” asked 
one of these cats. 

“ Purrington !” cried Bidelia, 
triumphantly, looking around for 
the praise she felt sure that this 
happy name would win from all 
her companions. She had been 
thinking up a name during the 
three days that she was getting to- 
gether her kittens’ neck-ribbons, 
mending their clothes, and packing 
for the journey. 

All the cats raised such a yowl 
of delight that if there had been 
any human being within hearing 
37 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


he would certainly have thought 
that some awful thing had hap- 
pened to all the cats in the world 
at once. But it was merely keen 
pleasure that such a fashionable- 
sounding, yet happy, homelike, cati- 
fied name had been hit upon by 
Bidelia, whom they now felt surer 
than ever must secretly be a suc- 
cessful author. 

“ Purrington by all means,” said 
Tommy Traddles, with the grave 
approval of a great scholar. “ I 
should suggest that we also give 
this stream a name, and call it the 
Meuse. Purrington-on-the-Meuse 
will be a delightful heading for 
our note-paper.” 

“Mews! Yes, that is a nice 
name for our river,” said Madam 
Laura. “Yet I don’t like, don’t 
38 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


quite like, calling the river after 
mews only. We are often so un- 
happy when we mew ! ” 

“ My dear lady,” said Doctor 
T raddles, — T ommy T raddles had 
been honoured with the title of 
Doctor of Claws by a feline col- 
lege, — “ we are not calling it after 
our own mews ; we do not spell 
it that way. This is M-E-U-S-E, 
not M-E-W-S, and there is a river 
with that name in F ranee. I con- 
fess I had the double sound of 
the word in my mind when I sug- 
gested the name, however.” 

“ How did you become so 
learned, Tommy? ” sighed Madam 
Laura, much impressed. 

“ I used to sit on a dictionary a 
great deal of the time while I was 
growing,” said Thomas Traddles. 

39 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ I then lived with a student of 
law, and I absorbed learning, and 
especially a knowledge of words, 
by sitting, and even napping, on 
his dictionary.” 

“We are going to live in Pur- 
rington-on-the-Meuse!” cried Ban- 
Ban, with a flirt of his tail. 
“Wutz-Butz, bring your red flan- 
nel over here. Those kittens must 
be put to bed. Kiku-san, will 
you let Dolly Varden and Puttel 
sleep with you in your crocheted 
shawl, while Nugget curls up 
with Wutz-Butz in this red flan- 
nel ? ” 

Before Kiku-san could reply, 
Bidelia started to say that she 
must keep her children with her, 
and Wutz-Butz to say that he in- 
tended to watch all that night 
40 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


with ’Clipsy and some others of 
the stranger cats ; but nobody 
could hear a word that either of 
them said, for all three kittens set 
up a perfectly deafening trio of 
miaous : 

“We want mamma, we want 
mamma ; we won’t sleep with 
Y-O-U-U-U!” they shrieked. 

“ Oh, dear,” sighed Bidelia, 
“ they are so tired you must par- 
don them ! My darlings, you are 
going to sleep with mamma ; 
please, please be quiet.” And 
she gave three hasty but tender 
licks down the noses of each of 
them, which quieted the kittens 
and comforted them. 

“ I was about to say that Bidelia 
may use my blanket to-night,” said 
Wutz-Butz. “ I shall stay awake 
41 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


and watch. By to-morrow night 
she will have her own house all 
furnished.” 

“You are most kind, Wutz- 
Butz,” said Bidelia, feeling rather 
ashamed that she had looked 
down on Wutz-Butz, thinking him 
only a stupid soldier. She curled 
herself down at once on his red 
flannel and drew the three kittens 
to her, one under her forepaw, one 
close to her head, and one tucked 
away under her chin — this was 
Dolly Varden, the smallest and 
sweetest of the 



Kiku-san and Ban- Ban lai 


down close 


crocheted shawl. Kiku was very 
silent, and even Ban-Ban had 
nothing to say, but drew the white 
cat’s gentle face close to his saucy 
42 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


one. They remembered Rob and 
Lois, and it is more difficult to 
be brave at night, than it is in the 
broad daylight, when the sun is 
shining. 

“We will sing you to sleep,” 
said Madam Laura and Tommy 
Traddles, kindly, guessing that 
these petted cats might be lonely. 
And they sang to the tune of 
“ Santa Lucia : ” 

“ Little cats, dearest cats, sleep on your pillows, 
Under the stars and ’neath green pussy-willows. 
Sweet should your rest be and peaceful your 
slumber, 

Dreaming of cream-pans and mice without num- 
ber ; 

Rich your reward for your courage and pity, 
Giving the homeless a home and a city. 

Ban-Ban and Kiku-san, all cats shall bless you, 
Lois and Robin again will caress you ; 

Bravest cats, dearest cats, sleep on your pillows, 
Kissed by the winds and the soft pussy-willows/’ 
43 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Sung to a low, sweet tune, this 
song proved soothing, and Kiku- 
san and Ban- Ban fell asleep as 
soon as it ceased, borne away to 
dreamland by the rise and fall of 
many purrs mingling with the 
murmur of their rippling river 
Meuse. 


44 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER III. 

THE PURRERS OF PURRINGTON 

« 0 one can imagine how 
fast cat carpenters work, 
for very few indeed have 
ever seen them work. 
And so it would be hard to make 
any one believe how fast Purring- 
ton-on-the-Meuse grew. Why, in 
a week those five cat carpenters 
had built all the houses which 
were needed to start with! Of 
course the other cats helped in all 
ways that they could, such as 
bringing boards, laying up bricks, 
and puttying in windows, but even 
45 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


with this help it was wonderful 
the way the town grew. 

There did not have to be many 
houses to begin with. There was 
one big house, rather like a city 
apartment-house for single gentle- 
men, in which the stranger cats, 
all of them unmarried, were to live. 
Madam Laura offered to keep 
house for them, because they 
never could take care of them- 
selves without a lady at the head 
of their domestic affairs, and there 
never could be another more fitted 
in every way to keep house for 
them than was kind Madam 
Laura. It was most good of her 
to do it, however, for being a lady 
of means, she could have gone off 
and lived selfishly by herself, 
without a care in the world. 

46 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Ban-Ban and Kiku-san lived 
with Bidelia and the children ; 
Thomas Traddles and his new 
friend ’Clipsy had another house 
to themselves; and there was a 
fourth house put up for a widow 
lady who came with her son to 
Purrington from the human city. 
She was a white and yellow lady 
named Alloy, because she was not 
all gold, and her son, who was 
about a month older than Bidelia’s 
children, was named Scamp, and 
if ever a name just suited its 
bearer it was this kitten’s, for he 
was such a scamp that all the 
cats were worried for fear his 
example would lead Nugget into 
bad ways. 

So they built a schoolhouse at 
once, and opened a school for the 
47 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


children, with Doctor T raddles 
for teacher, and some others to 
come in during the week to teach 
extra branches. Madam Laura, 
for instance, taught Fishing and 
Deportment; Bidelia taught Dan- 
cing; Kiku-san taught French, 
which he had learned from 
Lois’s French nurse; Wutz-Butz 
taught Boxing; and ’Clipsy was 
to give a course in Business Meth- 
ods, which he had learned during 
his life in the streets. 

Then there were the shops. 
One where you could buy ribbons, 
collars, bells, catnip, balls, cushions, 
and all such elegant trifles; and 
another which was the market. 
Here you could buy asparagus 
tips, string beans, peas, fish, and 
meat. This was kept by a gentle- 

48 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


man named Schwartz Katz, one of 
the stranger cats who had joined 
the party. He was very round 
and stout, and was of German 
descent, having been born in a 
delicatessen shop in the human 



S-KATZ 


FRESH 

MICE 

DAILY- 


city. He had the nicest, clean- 
est market you ever saw, and over 
his door was his tempting sign: 
W S. Katz, Butcher. Fresh Mice 
Daily.” He had many customers 
among the citizens of Purrington 
who were too busy or too lazy to 

49 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


hunt their own game. He was a 
black cat, as his name showed, but 
he wore a white front and had 
white forelegs, so that he looked 
precisely like a human market- 
man — at least in his clothes — 
who had put on a white apron 
and drawn white linen sleeves 
over his coat sleeves. He often 
sat in his doorway, watching for 
customers, looking big and fat 
and prosperous, just like a nice 
German butcher. 

Dr. Thomas Traddles had said 
that all the citizens of Purrington 
should be spoken of as Purrers, 
both because they were so very 
happy in their beautiful new city, 
and because it was the best way 
he knew of shortening the word 
Purrington. So Purrers they 
50 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


were called, and they lived up to 
it beautifully. 

One day a most wonderful 
thing happened, and one that 
made the cats of Purrington even 
more Purrers than they were be- 
fore. Everything had been made 
comfortable, and there was no 
lack of anything a cat could want 
in Purrington, save one thing, 
but that was a sad lack. This 
was milk. There was no milk to 
be had in Purrington, and no 
prospect of a way to get any. 
The Purrers were feeling very 
grave about it when, one day, a 
cow came walking along the grass- 
grown road that led through the 
woods beside the city, and stopped 
to look at the houses, as well she 
might, for there was not one 
51 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


higher than three feet, and even 
the apartment-house was not more 
than ten feet square. 

Ban-Ban saw the cow consid- 
ering, and he guessed in a mo- 
ment that she must be the cow of 
whom he had heard Rob read in 
Mother Goose, who belonged to 
a piper who bade the cow con- 
sider. He knew this, because that 
was the only cow of whom he 
had ever heard who considered. 
So he ran straightway out to 
the edge of the woods to speak 
to her. 

“ Dear Madam,” Ban-Ban be- 
gan most politely, for he had al- 
ways moved in the best society 
and had heard no end of books 
read aloud, “you can’t imagine 
how glad I am to meet you. 

52 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Did you like ‘ Corn Rigs Are 
Bonny ’ better than the first tune 
after you had bade the piper play 
it to you ? ” 

The cow stared. “Yes, I al- 
ways liked that tune best of all,” 
she said. “ But how did you 
know ? ” 

“ That you were that piper’s 
cow?” asked Ban-Ban, twirling 
his moustache with, it must be 
confessed, considerable self-satis- 
faction. “ Oh, I recognized you 
at once, because I saw you con- 
sidering. May I ask whither you 
are going and whence you came ? ” 

You will see that Ban- Ban was 
trying to express himself elegantly, 
because he wanted to impress the 
cow, and hoped to get her to see 
things his way. 


53 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ I came from the piper,” said 
the cow, “but I have no idea 
where I am going. I have left 
him for good and all. He had 
nought to give me — ” ' 

“ Yes ; I know,” interrupted 
Ban-Ban. 

“Well, of course I am fond of 
music and all that,” the cow went 
on, “ but a person cannot live on 
piping, and corn is better than the 
tune, ‘Corn Rigs Are Bonny.’ 
So I had to leave the piper, and 
now I am looking for a home. 
When I see a comfortable farm, 
and a farmer that looks good- 
tempered, and as if he would be 
kind to animals, I shall turn in at 
his gate and chew my cud until 
he takes me to keep.” 

Ban-Ban fairly quivered with 

54 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


eagerness. “We are not farmers,” 
he began, and as the cow stared 
more than ever at the cat who 
made such an unnecessary state- 
ment, he stopped and went back 
to the beginning of his story. 

“We are cats,” he said, “who 
have built this city of Purrington 
on this river Meuse for a place 
where all poor, abused cats can 
come and live happily all their 
nine lives. We have everything 
we want, except milk. Don’t you 
think you could be happy if you 
joined us ? There would not be 
any one to bother you all day long ; 
you could wander where you 
might choose — and wherever a 
cow chews — with no one to drive 
you, or turn you into a poor 
pasture, or out of a good one. 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


We would be honoured by your 
presence, and would build you a 
house all to yourself, and all we 
would ask would be that every 
morning and night you would let 
down your milk to .us.” 

“ That would be like my friend 
Cusha-Cow Bonny. Her master 
asked her to let down her milk to 
him, and he promised her in 
return a gown of silk and a silver 
tee,” remarked the cow, thought- 
fully. 

“ I don’t know what a silver 
tee is,” said Ban-Ban, “ but it 
doesn’t sound like anything that a 
cow would care for, and I’m sure 
you would rather have a nice 
house and your freedom all the 
long summer days than a gown 
of silk. Any sensible person 
56 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


would, especially we who already 
have such beautiful gowns of fine 
fur and glossy brown hair, — 
yours is a lovely colour, if you 
will pardon a personal remark,” 
added artful Ban-Ban. 

The cow smiled. “Not as 
beautiful as yours,” she said, not 
to be outdone in politeness. 
“Yours is silver on the high line 
of your back, and almost purple 
in the shadow ; I never saw a 
more beautiful coat.” 

“ Thank you,” said Ban- Ban. 
He did not pay as much atten- 
tion to compliments as the cow 
did, because he had been praised 
ever since he had had his eyes 
open, and he could not help 
knowing how beautiful he was. 
“ Don’t you think that you would 
57 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


rather stay with us, in Purrington, 
than to go farther, only to be 
again the slave of some man?” 

The cow seemed to be struck 
by this way of putting the case ; 
she no longer hesitated. Shifting 
her cud to the left cheek, the 
cheek on which a cow always 
chews when her mind is fully 
made up, Mrs. Brindle said, de- 
cidedly : “ I am quite sure that I 
should. And I will ! ” 

“ Good ! ” cried Ban-Ban. “ F ol- 
low me, then ! ” 

Making his tail veiy stiffly 
erect to do honour to such an 
important occasion as was this 
one, when he was to lead into 
Purrington its supply of much 
needed milk, Ban-Ban wheeled 
around and trotted rapidly down 
58 



raised. 




























































































































































































































. 






PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


the main street, followed by Mrs. 
Brindle, who looked more round- 
eyed than ever, as if she could not 
quite understand being adopted 
by a cat. 

The shout of welcome which 
all the Purrers of Purrington 
raised as they espied Ban-Ban 
and his companion nearly lifted 
little Dolly Varden off her feet. 
But when she ran to the window 
and saw what was coming she 
raised her piping voice and cried : 
“ Mamma, Mamma Bidelia ! Come 
quick ! Ban- Ban’s bringing home 
something awful, with horns ! 
It’s bigger than men and looks 
crosser ! ” 

Bidelia ran to the window. 

“Why, that’s milk, my Furry- 
Softness ! ” she cried, joyfully. 

59 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“Milk!” cried Nugget, scorn- 
fully. He was not nearly as re- 
spectful in his manner since he 
had played with Scamp. “ Milk 
comes in cans, mamma; not in 
big, hair-covered horny things, 
with legs ! ” 

“That is a cow, Nugget; you 
will see to-night whether you 
know more than your mother. 
Cows give milk, just as pumps 
give water,” said Bidelia, severely. 

“Then I’m glad Ban -Ban 
brought her,” said Puttel, licking 
her lips thirstily. “I’m so tired 
not having milk I most want to 
go back to our old place.” 

“ Poor Puttel ! ” said Bidelia, 
feeling of the kitten’s nose. “You 
are feverish. Never mind, my 
babies ; to-night you shall have a 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


long, creamy, blessed drink, and 
I’m going to cook a fish for Ban- 
Ban’s supper for bringing the cow 
here. What a genius Ban-Ban 
is! Nugget, run around to Mr. 
Schwartz Katz’s and ask him to 



let you have his best fish. T ell 
him Ban-Ban has brought the cow 
to Purrington, and that the fish is 
for him.” 

“He knows it,” growled Nug- 
get, flattening his ears sulkily, for 
he did not like to go on errands 
61 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


since Scamp had told him his 
mother took too much of his play- 
time for her service. It was far 
from true, for Bidelia was a most 
indulgent little mother. 

“Nugget, go at once, and lift 
your ears. I will not allow you 
to flatten your ears when I ask 
you to do something for me. 
Oh, dear,” sighed Bidelia. “ How 
dreadful it is to have kittens fall 
in with bad comrades ! N ugget 
has always been such a good 
boy! And now that Scamp is 
changing him for the worse every 
day ! ” 

“ Don’t worry, mamma,” purred 
dear little Dolly, putting her fore- 
legs around Bidelia’s neck. “Nug- 
get isn’t bad, like Scamp ; he only 
thinks it’s smart to spit and flatten 
62 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


his ears. He thinks that makes 
him catly, and a soldier like 
Wutz-Butz.” 

Bidelia licked Dolly tenderly. 
“ I only wish he were not so weak 
as to want to copy bad kittens. 
As though it were not much more 
grown-up to be strong, and good, 
and obedient ! I f he wants to be 
catly why doesn’t he imitate Doc- 
tor T raddles, or sweet Kiku-san, 
our gentle white friend, or clever 
Ban- Ban, or even Wutz-Butz, if 
he does fight sometimes? It is 
so silly to swagger! ” And Bidelia 
sighed again, feeling that she was 
too young to manage such a great 
yellow kitten as N ugget was grow- 
ing to be. 

Just then there arose in the 
street a great chorus. To human 
63 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


ears it would have sounded like 
a chorus of mews, but it was 
not. 

All the cats were shouting, just 
as they had heard human beings 
shout at election time, and this 
was what they were saying : 

“What’s the matter with Ban- 
Ban?” “He’s all right!” “Who 
founded Purrington ? ” “ Ban- 

Ban ! ” “ Who brought the cow 

to Purrington ? ” “ Ban- Ban! ” 

And then they sang, to the 
tune of Yankee Doodle: 

“ Bannie-Ban, with coat of silk, 

Got poor thirsty cats their milk ! 
Bannie-Ban, he knows how 
Best to argue with a cow. 

Purrers, we, of Purrington, 

Without milk could not get on. 

Who went out, the cow to catch ? 

Our noble Bandersnatch ! 

64 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Who brought Brindle, jogging-jog ? 
Our noble Bandarlog! 

Cheer, then, cheer, all cats who can, 
Cheer your best for great Ban-Ban ! ” 


65 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER IV. 

A FIVE O’CLOCK CATNIP TEA 

HEN Purrington was 
started there were a great 
many who thought that 
it must fail. Cats who 
would not join the pilgrims to 
the new city sat on back fences 
and mewed over the certain dis- 
appointment awaiting those who 
went, sometimes spitting in their 
wrath that any cat should be so 
foolish as to go on such a wild- 
goose chase after happiness, just 
as human folk croak over other 
people’s experiments. It is too 
much to expect that cats can 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


always be better than human 
beings, at least that all cats can. 

But Purrington was not a fail- 
ure ; on the contrary it was a 
great success; and, when it had 
vbeen built two weeks, and every- 
thing was in running order, and 
the Purrers were quite sure that 
their plan was working well, Bi- 
delia and Madam Laura resolved 
to give a tea to celebrate the 
founding of the city. 

A great many ladies had come 
to the town by this time, so there 
was no trouble about getting to- 
gether plenty of guests for the 
tea. Doctor Thomas Traddles’s 
school was by this time grown to 
thirty scholars, for most of the 
ladies who had moved to Purring- 
ton, like Bidelia, brought with 
67 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


them two or three children — 
and one came to town with five 
kittens ! 

The cards to the tea were 
issued three days in advance, and 
were delivered at each house — 
there were more houses built by 



** One came to town with five kittens 


this time to shelter all the new ar- 
rivals — by a small, gray cat 
called Posty, whose duty it was 
to deliver the mails and to keep 
the post-office. 

The cards ran thus : “ Mrs. 
Bidelia Purplay requests the pleas- 
ure of your company to tea on 
68 

















































































PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


June 10th, from four to six. 
Music.” 

There was not a cat omitted 
in these invitations, because the 
founders of Purrington had talked 
the matter over in private and had 
agreed that it would never do to 
allow any division and jealousy in 
the town such as is caused by 
social sets, and one person look- 
ing down upon another, and snub- 
bing him. It was not easy for 
Ban-Ban, Kiku-san, Bidelia, and 
Tommy Traddles to bring them- 
selves to treat everybody exactly 
alike, for there is nothing on 
earth so lofty by nature as a cat, 
and these four had been used 
only to fashionable society. How- 
ever, they made up their minds 
that they must do whatever was 

69 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


for the general good, and treat 
all the Purrers of Purrington with 
the same neighbourly kindness. 

Bidelia hoped that by having 
her tea continue from four to six 
she would escape crowding her 
parlour, in which there was not 
any too much room ; but, by five 
minutes to four, there was a 
stirring in the streets, heads 
poking out of windows and doors 
to see if any one were starting, 
and before the French clock on 
Bidelia’s parlour cabinet had struck 
half-past four, all her guests had 
arrived. 

Of course nobody would have 
missed this first social event in 
Purrington for their whiskers, but 
there had been a good deal said 
from one to another about Bi- 
70 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


delia’s giving a tea. Nobody 
seemed to think that tea would 
be very enjoyable. 

“ It’s all very well to be fash- 
ionable,” said the mother of the 
five kittens — Daisy Bell was her 
name — “ but tea ! Whoever 
heard of a cat that would so much 
as smell of tea ? I should have 
thought that Mrs. Bidelia Purplay 
could have found something bet- 
ter to have asked us to than 
tea ! I told my eldest daughter 
not to be surprised if I came 
home down sick. Tea! Of all 
things ! ” 

This was said as Daisy Bell 
came to the tea — one of the very 
earliest to arrive she was, too, in 
spite of her dislike for tea — and 
her neighbour, Mrs. Blotch, to 
7 1 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


whom she was talking, fully 
agreed with her. 

Judge, then, the pleasure of 
these ladies when, on entering 
Bidelia’s house, a strong odour of 
catnip met their twitching noses. 
H ere is where breeding tells ; 
Daisy Bell’s manners were not 
proof against this surprise and 
the tempting odour. 

“ Dear me ! ” she cried, as she 
came in, — before she had so 
much as inquired after her host- 
ess’s children, mind you, — “ Dear 
me ! How strong that catnip 
smells ! Are you giving a catnip 
tea ? I wouldn’t have dreaded 
coming if I’d have known that!” 

“ Did you dread coming ? ” in- 
quired Bidelia, pleasantly. “ I 
am very sorry. Of course it is a 
72 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


catnip tea. I never thought of 
stating it on my cards, because I 
thought everybody would under- 
stand. A Five O’Clock Catnip 
Tea. Why, of course it is. What 
other kind of a tea would I care 
to give, or you care to come 
to ? ” 

“No other kind,” said Daisy 
Bell, promptly. “ What do we 
do?” 

“If you will go into my bed- 
room you will find Puttel there 
to take your things, and help you 
in any little way that you may 
need help ; she acts as my maid 
to-day. Then, when your fur is 
arranged and you are quite ready, 
if you will be so kind as to come 
back to me I will take you to the 
dining-room. Madam Laura is 
73 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


good enough to pour for me to- 
day.” 

Daisy Bell did not know what 
Bidelia meant by pouring for her, 
but she kept silent, for there was 
something in little Bidelia’s easy 
and gracious manner that made 
Daisy Bell, and Mrs. Blotch, too, 
conscious that they had not her 
advantages of education and social 
experience. 

They had not got their things 
off and their fur smoothed down, 
and their ribbons retied, before 
other ladies came, and still others, 
until Bidelia’s small bedroom was 
crowded, and Puttel had to give 
the first comers a hint to go out 
to her mother, for everybody 
seemed to dread to make the first 
move to go back to the parlour. 

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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


In the meantime the gentle- 
men had been arriving, hardly less 
prompt than the ladies, which is 
not strange, because it was curi- 
osity that brought them all so 
early, and cats are the most curi- 
ous of creatures, the gentlemen 
just as curious as the ladies among 
them — wherein they are very 
different, you know, from human 
creatures. 

Bidelia was busy receiving her 
guests, and ushering them out to 
the dining-room, where Madam 
Laura was pouring catnip tea at 
the table out of a very big urn 
indeed. The table was beauti- 
fully set with charming saucers 
and plates of glass and silver, 
and decorated with bunches of 
catnip in the centre and at each 
75 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


corner, connected by long loops 
of sky-blue ribbon. There were 
thin slices of cold meat, little 
cakes of puppy biscuits, cut into 
fancy shapes, crackers; cheese, 
cream in a large bowl, like a 
punch-bowl on a side-table, and 
ice-cream — melted ice-cream, of 
course, as all sensible people with 
good, catlike tastes prefer it. 

Bidelia had cups for the catnip 
tea which had come down to her 
from her greatest of grandmothers, 
nobody knows how many genera- 
tions ago, for the cups were nearly 
a hundred years old, and in a 
hundred years cats lay by a great 
length of grandmothers. These 
cups were small at the bottom 
and flaring at the top, like little 
bowls, and they had no handles. 

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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


They were a grayish china, with 
dark blue border and little sprigs 
of dark blue flowers in the bot- 
toms, which the guests could not 
see until they had lapped up their 
tea to the last drop. 

Dolly Varden handed around 
tea and the other refreshments. 
The crowd grew so great that 
there was not room after awhile 
to set the cups on the floor. 
Ever so many were waiting to be 
served, and one could see from 
their rising fur that this was an- 
noying them dreadfully. 

T ommy T raddles saw this, too, 
and he whispered to Bidelia. 

“ Certainly,” she said aloud, and 
Tommy Traddles turned to the 
guests. 

“ Our hostess has provided us 
77 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


with an entertainment, in which 
I have the honour to be of 
some assistance, as the master of 
the Purrington school,” he said. 
“ When you have enjoyed suffi- 
ciently the hospitality of this room 
will you please go out upon the 
lawn, where the music announced 
on the cards of invitation will be 
given.” 

The instant Doctor Traddles 
had finished speaking more than 
half the guests hastened out on 
the lawn, anxious to secure the 
best places to see and hear, 
for cats do not always behave 
unselfishly ; perhaps they have 
followed the bad example of 
human beings, of whom a few are 
always trying to get the best of 
everything for themselves. 

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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Here the fond and proud 
parents found all the kittens of 
Purrington, little girls and little 
boys, drawn up in a row, their 
eyes as bright as they could be, 
their noses quivering with nervous 
impatience, and their little tails 
all straight up in the air above 
their backs like so many fur-cov- 
ered slate-pencils. The kittens 
all wore ribbons crossed under 
the left foreleg and tied in a bow 
on the right shoulder. The boys 
wore pink, the girls blue ribbons, 
and the scholars who had done 
well in school had each a little 
silvered bell tied around the 
throat by a narrow ribbon, match- 
ing in colour the wider one around 
the shoulder. 

The murmurs that arose from 

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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


the guests on the lawn reached 
the ears of those remaining in the 
dining-room, who hastily finished 
their catnip tea and swallowed 
their last bites of cold meat and 
puppy biscuit cakes, lapped the 
final drops of their ice-cream, and 
hurried after the ladies and gen- 
tlemen on the lawn. 

“ Dear friends,” said Bidelia in 
a faint little voice, for she was 
frightened to speak to so many 
cats, all with their eyes fixed on 
her and with their tails slightly 
waving. “ Dear friends, with 
Doctor T raddles’s help I have 
got together our blessed kittens 
to help me entertain you, and to 
prove what great progress they 
are making in school. First, my 
dancing class will show you a 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


figure, a new figure, in the cotil- 
lion. It is called : The Chase 
of the Tails.” 

’Clipsy, who, being black, had 
a natural talent for music, and 
particularly for playing the violin, 
took his place with his fiddle over 
his shoulder, precisely as you see 
the cat in “ High, Diddle, Diddle.” 
Nearly all the kittens stepped out 
into the middle of the lawn, stuck 
their tails out straight, and waited. 
’Clipsy played a few bars softly 
and then dashed into a lively air, 
that made every eye in the place 
spread its pupil ’way to the begin- 
ning of its white line, so exciting 
was this music. 

Instantly every kitten made a 
rapid, low bow, and then danced 
a few steps to the right, a few 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


to the left, leaped into the air, 
turned its soft body half-way 
around as it came down, and 
slapped at its own tail with its 
right forepaw. The music changed 
into other time, and with it the 



The Dance. 


dancing steps of the kittens 
changed also. Swinging and 
swaying, the kittens began to spin 
around after their tails, keeping 
perfect time to the exciting music, 
whirling faster and faster, until 
all one could see were so many 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


soft, varied-coloured balls of grace- 
ful kits, spinning, dashing, run- 
ning, skipping, snatching after 
the tails that they never quite 
caught, never losing the swing of 
the dance, never losing the fun 
of the thing, until all the cats look- 
ing on were quite wild themselves 
with the delight of it and pride 
in their children. Fancy, if one 
kitten running after its tail is 
funny and charming, what it must 
have been to have seen twenty- 
two kittens, in a circle, trying to 
catch their tails in a mazy dance, 
perfectly performed ! 

“We’ve had the time of our 
lives!” cried Posty, jumping up 
in the air himself, and giving a 
wild mew, because he could not 
help doing it. 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Let us give Mrs. Bidelia a 
vote of thanks,” proposed Ban-Ban, 
remembering how he had been 
publicly thanked for bringing the 
cow into Purrington. 

“ Three cheers instead ! ” cried 
Wutz-Butz, who wanted to let off 
steam in some way. 

The three cheers were instantly 
given, for all the cats felt pre- 
cisely as Wutz-Butz did, that 
they must give vent to their 
feelings, so wrought up by the 
dance, or fly into small pieces on 
the spot. 

Bidelia dropped a beautiful 
curtsey. “ Thank you, dear 
friends,” she said. “ I am glad 
that you consider our first social 
event in Purrington a success. 
Before you go will you join in 
84 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


a song? The kittens will lead 
us, because they know it best.” 

A large kitten, whose voice was 
already changing from soprano to 
tenor, started the air of “ Old 
Kentucky Home,” in which all 
the kittens, and most of the cats, 
joined at once, singing the follow- 
ing words : 

“ We are cosy ev'ry night. 

And we're happy ev'ry day, 

In this Pussy town we call Purrington ; 

We have just enough of work. 

And we've just enough of play 
To keep us ever purring on. 

Chorus: “Then hasten, all ye pussies, 

Oh, come, our joy to see. 

For we're happy little kits, 

And we've danced ourselves to bits. 

In honour of Bidelia’s Catnip Tea. 

“ In the world we've left behind 
Where the houses grow in blocks, 

85 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


We were often far from safe and warm, 

And the hands that ought to stroke, 
Sometimes gave us cruel knocks ; 

But in Purrington we’re out of reach of harm. 

Chorus: “Then sing aloud, dear pussies, 

And purr your joy and glee! 

For here we’ve made a home, 

Whence we never more will roam, 

And we’re grateful for Bidelia’s Catnip 
Tea.” 


86 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER V. 

THE SCAMPISHNESS OF SCAMP 

T is hard to imagine a 
cloud crossing the sky of 
Pussy-Cat Town; but 
Purrington was growing 
larger, and, among a good many 
people, even cat people, there 
must be some who are not quite 
happy, and some who are not 
quite good. 

Kiku-san was the only one of 
all the citizens of Purrington who 
was really unhappy, though Ban- 
Ban had many moments when his 
shining gray fur covered homesick- 
87 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


ness and longing for Robin. But 
Ban-Ban had a certain brightness 
about him, a snap-and-go which 
made it impossible for him to give 
up to downright unhappiness. 
Kiku-san, however, had a differ- 
ent nature. Gentle, clinging, and 
most affectionate, he could not 
shake off trouble when it found 
him, and Kiku-san was so home- 
sick, so lonely for gentle little 
Lois, in whose arms he had slept 
all his life, and against whose 
cheek it had been his daily custom 
to rub his own cheek again and 
again, the while that he cooed 
softly to her, telling her of his 
love for her, that not all the 
charms of Purrington, nor the 
thought that it was making so 
many friendless cats rich and 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


happy, could cheer his little 
heart. 

Bidelia, too, had a growing 
anxiety that might prove to be a 
grief. Nugget was getting more 
and more under the influence of 
Scamp, and that influence was not 
for good. Nugget had always 
been as obedient as Puttel and 
Dolly Varden, and very proud of 
his young little mother, perfectly 
happy to trot beside her, and glad 
to have other kittens see how 
much he loved her. But now 
Nugget thought it was catly to 
pretend not to love Bidelia very 
much, and even to dare to spit — 
softly, under his breath, to be 
sure, — but still to spit, — when she 
told him to do something for her, or 
when she forbade him to go out. 

89 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


So far Nugget had not done 
anything wrong, or outright wrong; 
but Bidelia was not a silly mother, 
and, even though she had not 
had experience in bringing up 
kittens until these three were born, 
she knew quite well that nobody 
goes wrong all at once, but that 
from small beginnings comes 
great harm, and she worried 
over Nuggets impertinent man- 
ner. 

She felt certain that he was only 
foolish, like some human children 
whom she had known, who thought 
it proved them quite grown up if 
only they were saucy and unman- 
nerly, and she knew that the 
change in Nugget came from the 
bad example of Scamp, whose 
naughtiness was of a much more 

90 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


serious sort than Nugget’s had 
yet become. 

She could not take Nugget out 
of school, away from Scamp alto- 
gether, as she would have liked 
to do, because she was too busy 
to teach him herself, and he was 
getting on beyond anything. 
Tommy Traddles said that Nug- 
get was one of his best scholars, that 
he could subtract three tails from 
seven mice, and seven mice from 
eleven rats, all in his head as quick 
as a cat could wink. And that 
he knew the tables of jumps and 
pounces better than any one else 
in the school, and could tell in a 
twinkling how many jumps made 
one good pounce. In grammar 
he led his class, being able to tell 
in what case every mew noun was 
91 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


the moment he heard it, and he 
could decline purring verbs in the 
passive voice, or spitting verbs in 
the active voice in a way that 
delighted his teacher’s heart, for 
Doctor Traddles was particularly 
fond of grammar. 

So N ugget went to school every 
day, and thus saw Scamp con- 
stantly. Scamp sought Nugget’s 
society more than any other kitten 
there ; he seemed to take a fancy 
to the quick-witted little yellow 
fellow, and perhaps liked to lead 
a good kitten into paths of naugh- 
tiness — there are many with that 
sort of taste. 

One day Scamp spoke to Nug- 
get as they met in the schoolroom 
doorway, after recess. 

“ Come with me to-night,” he 

92 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


said. “ I’m going fishing in the 
Meuse, and we ll have fun. Bring 
some bait ; I scratched up worms 
in our garden.” 

“ I don’t have to have worms 
for bait,” said Nugget, proudly. 
“ I learned how to fish with just 
my paw. I guess I can’t go, 
though.” 

N ow Scamp knew that N ugget 
had been taught to fish with his 
paw, and that was why he partic- 
ularly wanted him to go fishing 
that evening. But this he would 
not own, so he said: “Why can’t 
you ? There won’t be any one 
but just us two. We’ll have fun, 
I tell you.” 

“ My mother won’t let me — ” 
began Nugget, but stopped him- 
self, ashamed to say that he could 
93 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


not go for that reason, though 
there could hardly have been a 
better one. 

“ Before I’d be tied to my 
mammy’s tail ! Cry-kitten, ’fraid- 
cat!” sneered Scamp. 

“ My mother says the river is 
dangerous at night,” said Nugget. 

“ How does she know ? A 
little cat like her ! ” said Scamp. 
“ Did she ever go there, then ? 
You’re no good, Nugget. I don’t 
care; I’ll get some one else. I 
only wanted to give you first 
chance ! ’Fore I’d stay home for 
my mother ! I f you was any good 
you’d get up and go, and tell her 
afterward! You could hide, and 
I’d bring you supper, and then 
we’d go. I don’t care, though ! 
There’s plenty ain’t ’f raid-cats, if 
94 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


you are. Stay home, and let your 
mother lick your eyes open, if you 
want to ! ” 

This was an unbearable taunt. 
No kitten can endure to have 
another say this to him. It means, 
among kittens, that you are a 
baby, not yet nine days old, and 
not bright enough to get your own 
eyes open. 

Foolish little Nugget had not 
enough strength of character to 
treat these taunts with the con- 
tempt they deserved. He had 
not time to think, because they 
were standing in the schoolroom 
doorway, and were likely to be 
called to their places at any 
moment. So Nugget answered 
quickly, under the spur of this 
stinging taunt : “ Who’s afraid ? 

95 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


I didn’t want to go, but I will go, 
just to show you ! ” 

He didn’t see the smirk which 
curled Scamp’s whiskers, and 
which he put up his paw to hide ; 
but Nugget went to his seat a 
very sober kitten, and it was with 
a heavy heart that, after school 
was dismissed, instead of going 
home to Bidelia, as usual, he fol- 
lowed Scamp to the place where 
he was to await his coming to go 
fishing. 

1 1 was not at all exciting, either, 
to eat his supper, which Scamp 
brought him, under the trees, and 
then to follow his unfriendly 
friend along the line of the woods 
to the river, when it had grown 
too dark for them to be seen. 
Nugget had hoped that at least 

96 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


it would be thrilling to steal along 
this way, keeping out of sight, but 
the thrills were the wrong sort, 
for it was chilly, and dreadfully 
dark. If he had told the truth, 
Nugget would have said that he 
was afraid, and that the heart 
under his golden fur ached for 
the mother whom he was treating 
so badly. 

Scamp had said that the fish 
would bite better at night than by 
daylight. Nugget had listened 
to this statement with the awe that 
a small kitten feels for the wisdom 
of a larger one. 1 1 did not prove 
to be such very wise wisdom after 
all. The fishes did not bite 
Scamp’s bait, not once, nor would 
they swim where Nugget could 
scoop them up in his little yel- 
97 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


low paw, a trick at which he had 
become very skilful, thanks to 
Madam Laura’s teaching. It 
was too dark to see them plainly 
when they did swim up to the 
surface and near to the shore ; 
even a kitten’s eyes were misled 
by the ripples of the water under 
the stars, and Nugget often 
dipped for the fish too soon, or 
too late, or when there was no 
fish there. 

Nugget was so miserable that 
he had hard work to keep from 
mewing. Scamp was entirely 
changed in his manner to the 
poor little naughty thing that he 
had led astray. Now that he had 
got N ugget to do what he wanted 
him to, he seemed not to care for 
him in the least ; he snubbed him, 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


paid no attention to the younger 
kitten’s remarks, and often walked 
off to fish at some distance from 
Nugget, leaving the kitten to 
struggle with a fear that every 
moment was growing more un- 
bearable — it was the first time 
in his short life that Nugget had 
ever been out after dark without 
a grown cat to look after him. 

Scamp came back just in time 
to catch a whine which, in spite 
of himself, escaped Nugget, a sort 
of mew with his lips shut; but, 
so far from being sorry for Nug- 
get, he fell into a great rage as 
he heard the kitten’s moan, and 
he walked up to him sidewise, 
with his fur bristling and his 
claws sticking out, ready for a 
scratch. 

99 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ What’s the matter with you, 
you cry-kitten ? ” he demanded, 
growlingly. “ ’F raid your mother’ll 
spank you when you get home ? ” 
He spoke so roughly, so angrily, 
that Nugget lost heart altogether, 



Scamp looked him over scornfully 


and burst forth into open mewing. 
“ I wouldn’t care if she did,” he 
wailed. “ I wouldn’t care what 
she did, if only I was home again 
where she could do it.” 

Scamp looked him over scorn- 

IOO 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


fully, but Nugget’s spirit was 
gone ; not a hair on his body rose 
the higher for the look. 

“ N ext time I ask a cry-kitten 
to go fishin’ you’ll know it,” said 
Scamp, spitting. 

“ I wouldn’t go with you if you 
did,” said Nugget, not resenting 
being called “ cry-kitten,” or pre- 
tending not to know for whom 
the name was intended. “ I’ll 
never go anywhere with you again, 
Scamp Alloy, not anywhere, day 
or night. Y ou make me bad ; 
mamma says so, and it’s true, and 
now you make me frightened, and 
cold, and tired, and everything 
besides.” 

Nugget put both paws before 
his face and mewed fast and 
furiously. He did not see Scamp 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


nor the way he walked up close 
to him, still sidewise, with his ears 
back and his fur bristling. Nug- 
get was sitting close to the river’s 
edge, too busy with his trouble to 
think of anything else. So, when 
Scamp got up to him, he was not 
ready for the hard blow that bad 
kitten gave him on the side of 
his bowed yellow head, and it sent 
him flying out almost into the 
middle of the stream. 

Scamp was so frightened by 
what he had done that, after an 
instant, in which he stood staring 
at the circles in the water eddying 
around the spot where Nugget 
had sunk, he took to his heels 
and ran away for his life, leaving 
Nugget to get out or die as best 
he could. 


102 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


While these dreadful things 
were happening by the river, the 
cats at home were having hours 
of misery over Nugget’s disap- 
pearance. When he did not come 
home to supper, and Dolly and 
Puttel reported that they had not 
seen him since school was dis- 
missed, Bidelia’s heart misgave 
her. Ban -Ban and Kiku-san 
looked at Nugget’s delay from 
the brighter side, and comforted 
her by telling her it was caused 
by the kitten’s stopping to play, 
or getting into some compara- 
tively harmless mischief, as kittens 
will.' But after the supper, which 
Bidelia pushed away untasted, 
was over, even Ban-Ban and 
Kiku-san began to look serious, 
as Nugget did not turn up, and 

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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


they each went out to inquire 
among their friends if any one 
had seen little Nugget. 

When they came back without 
tidings of the lost kitten Bidelia 
sat down half -fainting, mewing 
piteously. Then she sprang up, 
took her little girls each by a paw, 
hurried them over to Madam 
Laura’s, and then rushed from 
house to house, calling upon all 
the Purrers of Purrington to turn 
out and search for her child. 

It did not take long to learn 
from Alloy, his mother, that 
Scamp was missing, too. Alloy 
laughed at Bidelia for her fears, 
being quite accustomed to Scamp’s 
doing precisely what he pleased, 
coming home exactly when he 
was ready to come. But Bidelia 

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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


was made only the more anxious 
at the thought that her little kit- 
ten should be missing in such 
bad company as Scamp’s. 

Twenty cats joined in the 
search for Nugget. Ban -Ban 
darted hither and thither; Tommy 
Traddles beat every bush and 
scanned every hole in his thorough 
way ; and Kiku-san walked beside 
Bidelia, one paw around the 
afflicted little cat, talking to her 
in his gentle, cooing way, and 
keeping up her courage as none 
of the others could do. As they 
walked, searching sorrowfully, the 
cats sang these words to the air 
of “ Long, Long Ago : ” 


“ When our loved kittens wander away. 
Sad are our hearts, bitter our pain ; 
105 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Sobbing, we mew through the long empty day, 
Hoping they'll answer again. 

Oh, little Nugget, had’st thou been wise. 

Thy mother’s counsel thou would’st not despise ! 
But through our errors life’s lessons we learn ; 
All is forgiven ; oh, return ! ” 

The last two lines of the music 
they repeated, singing, over and 
over again: “ Nugget, oh, come! 
Nugget, oh, come!” hoping that 
the kitten would hear and call to 
them. After some time they were 
rewarded by hearing afar a faint, 
a very faint and feeble mew. 


106 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER VI. 

MRS. BRINDLE BRINGS START- 
LING NEWS 

H E twenty cats broke 
into a run at the sound 
o f that weak mew. 
Although it was not re- 
peated, with their keen eyes, made 
to see in the dark, and their keen 
noses, made to smell out all kinds 
of the micest secrets, they had no 
trouble in finding poor little 
Nugget. There he lay on the 
bank, hardly beyond the reach of 
the water, wet', cold, too exhausted 
to mew again, although he could 
hear with his failing senses the 
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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


voices of the Purrers come to 
secure him. 

Kiku-san saw him first, and 
gently pointed him out to Bidelia, 
afraid as he did so that they had 
come too late, that Nugget was 
already dead. The delicate legs 
hung limp, the head had fallen 
forward, the eyes, still half-blue 
in colour, were glazed, and the 
mouth that had called them was 
open. 

Bidelia stiffened with dread as 
she saw her kitten, but instantly 
darted forward, calling : “ M-m-m- 
mmmmm!” That coaxing mother- 
note in which all cats call their 
kittens so lovingly. As she cooed 
to Nugget, she bent over him, 
nosing him, licking him frantic- 
ally, yet with the wisest, strong- 

108 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


est strokes, for, young as she was, 
and without having taken a course 
of First Aids to the Injured, her 
mother-love taught her how best 
to bring Nugget back. 



H er friends stood by watching 
the little mother, herself scarcely 
more than a kitten, anxiously hop- 
ing that she would warm Nugget 
into life. And she did. Though 
a few minutes longer delay and 
the rescuers would have come too 
109 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


late, Nugget was still on the right 
side of the line between life and 
death when he was found, and he 
rewarded his mother’s rapid work 
on his limp little body by moving 
a paw and uttering another plain- 
tive little mew. 

“ Let us help you,” cried Daisy 
Bell and Mrs. Blotch, while the 
other cats heaved a sigh of relief, 
well knowing that if Nugget 
turned to come back to them the 
battle was as good as won. 
Daisy Bell and Mrs. Blotch, 
experienced in the care of kittens, 
fell to licking with Bidelia, and 
did it with so much good-will 
that the soft, wet little form rocked 
back and forth on the grass, and 
the kitten soon opened both eyes 
as the grateful warmth of the busy 

no 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


tongues dried his yellow fur 
and set his chilled blood in 
motion. 

Bidelia licked around the kit- 
ten’s face, and Nugget put both 
paws around her neck. 

“ I’m dreadful sorry, mamma,” 
he whispered, so sincerely that he 
forgot to speak like Tommy 
Traddles’s best grammar scholar. 

“ Y es, dear, but I ’m only glad 
just now that you are safe,” 
Bidelia whispered back. 

“ Scamp coaxed me to go fishing 
with him ; I didn’t want to, but 
he said I was ’f raid-cat, so I 
went,” Nugget continued. “He 
was ugly after he got me here, 
and I mewed, so he pushed me 
into the water, and ran away. I 
kept up, and kept swimming — I 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


don’t see how I swam ; nobody 
taught me.” 

“ Oh, everybody knows how to 
swim without teaching, everybody 
except human beings,” said Bidelia. 
“ Go on, dearest.” 

“ I swam, but I could not get 
to shore,” sobbed Nugget. “ Not 
for the longest, longest time ! 
And I felt so weak, and I was so 
frightened, and it was so dark, 
and there were you and Dolly 
and Puttel all safe at home, and 
I thought I was never going to 
see you — ” Nugget broke off, sob- 
bing with all his might. 

“ There, there, dear, darling 
little Nugget, don’t talk about it, 
don’t tell me any more now ! ” said 
Bidelia, soothing him by the soft- 
est kisses and pats. “ I know all 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


about it. At last you did get to 
the bank, and crawled up, and lay 
there dying, when you heard the 
good Purrers singing to you, and 
gathered strength for just one tiny 
mew; just enough, dear, to save 
you. And now you’re going to 
get well fast, and we are going 
to take you home where Mrs. 
Brindle has warm milk for you, 
and never, never again are you 
going to be a naughty kitten, and 
disobey your little mother. Isn’t 
that it, my poor little Nugget ?” 

Nugget cuddled down close 
into Bidelia’s soft neck. “ That’s 
right, mamma,” he said. 

Bidelia gave a few quick purrs 
of happiness. It really was worth 
Nugget’s suffering and her own 
misery to have her kitten freed 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


for ever from the bad influence of 
Scamp. She turned to her friends 
with a bright smile. “ How shall 
we get this poor, naughty kitten 
home, dear Purrers ? He is far 
too weak to walk.” 

“We’ll make a cat’s-cradle,” 
said Ban-Ban, promptly. 

Now a cat’s-cradle is not what 
most of us understand it to be. 
The real cat’s-cradle, from which 
the one we make with strings got 
its name, is made in this. manner: 
an equal number of cats form 
themselves into two lines, walking 
abreast, one line behind the other. 
The rear line gently takes into its 
mouths the tips of the tails in the 
front line, which thus form, as one 
can easily see, a sort of hammock 
upon which a kitten, or any not 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


too great weight, may be car- 
ried. 

In this case ten cats made a 
line abreast, and ten more, in 
another line abreast, took the tips 
of the ten preceding tails into 
their mouths, and Nugget was 
laid on the cradle thus made, 
whereon he swung as easily as 
a Baltimore oriole in its nest, and 
slept peacefully while his kind 
protectors bore him home. 

Madam Laura, with Dolly Var- 
den and Puttel, were at the door 
of the apartment-house, eagerly 
watching for the return of the 
search-party. It was the shriek 
of glad mews which they raised 
that woke Nugget from his sleep 
of exhaustion, and told him that 
he was once more with his sisters, 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


whose qualities as “ mere girl 
kittens ” he no longer despised, 
since they had been good, while 
he had been both foolish and 
naughty. 

Bidelia, Laura, Ban-Ban, and 
Wutz-Butz took Nugget at once 
to Mrs. Brindle’s house to get 
her to give the poor kitten some 
warm milk. 

As soon as she saw them the 
cow uttered a long moo of wel- 
come. “ I thought you would 
never get here to-night,” she said 
when they were within hearing. 
“ I have news for you that I could 
hardly wait to tell you.” 

“ Nugget has been lost and 
nearly drowned,” said Ban-Ban. 
“We were out hunting for him. 
Will you please let down some 

116 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


milk for him while you are telling 
us your news ?” 

“ I was out walking to-day over 
at the other side of the woods,” 
Brindle began at once, as she 
obligingly let down her foaming 
milk into the pan Ban- Ban offered 
her. Cows never waste time beat- 
ing around the bush when they 
have anything to say. “ I came 
upon something there that shocked 
me. Purrington is in danger.” 

“In danger from what?” de- 
manded Ban- Ban, who was always 
the one with whom Brindle pre- 
ferred to talk, as he was her first 
friend among the Purrers. 

“ There is a settlement of 
dogs over there,” said Brindle, 
gravely. “ The place is called 
Dog Corners. I heard the dogs 

117 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


talking. They were saying that 
they had just learned of the ex- 
istence of Purrington, and that 
they meant to attack the city, des- 
troy it, and capture or kill all the 
cats in it. 

“ They never dreamed that I, a 
cow, was one of the people of 
Purrington,” she added, nodding 
her head up and down as a low 
growl of indignant horror arose 
from her hearers; even Nugget 
stopped drinking to join in 
it. “ The dogs talked freely, 
although they saw me standing 
there. I half-shut my eyes, and 
pretended to be interested in 
nothing but my cud. But you 
may be sure I listened to every 
word, and I have been nervous 
ever since because no one came 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


near me to be warned of the 
danger.” 

Wutz-Butz stood with his feet 
braced, and every separate hair 
bristling with fury. “It may 
come to-night,” he growled very 
low, and Ban-Ban, Laura, and 
Bidelia understood that he meant 
the dogs’ attack on Purrington, 
and thrilled at his words. 

“ There isn’t a moment to lose. 
We must consult the others, and 
arrange for meeting this attack,” 
cried Ban- Ban. “ Bidelia and 
Madam Laura, Wutz-Butz and I 
must leave you to bring Nugget 
home when you are ready. Mrs. 
Brindle, you are a cow in a thou- 
sand. You are full of the milk 
of human kindness and fidelity to 
your friends We will do some- 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


thing to prove how we appreciate 
you when this danger is past. 
Wutz-Butz, come on ! ” And Ban- 
Ban flew like a streak of quick- 
silver — he was about the same 
colour — down the street, and 
Wutz-Butz flew after him as fast 
as his greater weight allowed. 

The big bell in the town hall 
had never been rung. When it 
was hung Doctor Traddles had 
given a lecture in the hall on an 
incident in Scottish history, when 
one of the lords had asked in 
council who would bell the cat. 
Doctor Traddles pointed out that 
they, being cats, would reverse 
the order of the question, and 
ask : Who will bell the council- 
room ? It was considered a most 
happy allusion, and Tommy 
120 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Traddles’s wit was still quoted. 
But the bell had never, till this 
day, been rung. Now it pealed 
forth, calling together all the Pur- 
rers of Purrington for a council 
of war. 

Wutz-Butz, as the most expe- 
rienced soldier, was in the chair, 
presiding over the meeting. The 
cats looked very serious. An 
attack on their city by dogs was 
not a thing to be regarded 
lightly. 

“ Gentlemen,” said Wutz-Butz, 
after a hasty whispered consulta- 
tion with Tommy Traddles as to 
the proper way to proceed with 
the meeting, “ I should be glad to 
hear from you what you consider 
the best way to meet the attack 
which Mrs. Brindle has warned 


1 2 I 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


us that the dogs of Dog Corners 
intend to make upon us.” 

There were a great many good 
fighters in Purrington now, thanks 
to the number of cats who had 
joined the first settlers, and who 
had spent their days fighting for 
their lives in the human city’s 
streets ; but they were better 
fighters than talkers, and no one 
responded to Wutz-Butz’s request 
for advice as to the best method 
of meeting the danger threatening 
them. 

Finally Ban-Ban arose, looking 
around at the council. “ I am 
not a fighting cat,” he said, “ but 
since those who are seem shy 
about addressing us, let me state 
my opinion and offer my advice 
on the matter before us. We all 


122 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


know that those who attack are 
better placed than those who are 
attacked. They have but them- 
selves to take care of, while the 
attacked have to consider their 
wives and children, and suffer the 
loss of their homes if the attack 
is at all successful. Hence I pro- 
pose that, instead of waiting in 
Purrington for the dogs to attack 
us, we march on Dog Corners 
and wipe it off the map. We will 
send Brindle to find out when the 
dogs will be away, because, if 
they are free dogs, they must go 
off on long runs — even pet dogs 
do that. When we find out that 
most of the fighting dogs are 
absent, we will fall on their set- 
tlement and put to flight every 
puppy in it. It is right for us 
123 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


to do this, because as long as 
there is a dog village so near Pur- 
rington we shall never be safe.” 

This speech, plain and to the 
point, was received with great 
applause. 1 1 was moved, seconded, 
and carried that the Purrers of 
Purrington should make war upon 
Dog Corners on the first day 
possible. Wutz-Butz was ap- 
pointed Commander of the Cats, 
with ’Clipsy second in command, 
and Tommy Traddles and Ban- 
Ban staff-officers, for consultation. 

A city guard was appointed for 
that night to patrol the streets 
and alarm the Purrers should the 
attack be made at once. Then 
the meeting broke up, but not 
until the cats had sung, to the air 
of “ Hail Columbia : ” 

124 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Let the wild dogs now beware, 

We are bristling up our hair; 

We have now unsheathed our claws, 

We have made our martial laws. 

And, when dogs shall dare attack, 

With growls and spits we’ll drive them back! 
For Purrington we'll make a fight, 

Strong, because our cause is right. 

Liberty ! our countersign ; 

You for yours, but I for mine! 

Chorus : “ Like one cat we’ll meet the foe ; 

Like one paw we’ll lay him low. 
Courage, then, Cat Heroes ! Draw 
Claws, and strike with heart in paw ! ” 


1^5 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER VII. 

THEY FOUGHT LIKE CATS AND 
DOGS! 

HERE is only one way 
to catch anything, and 
that is: Pounce on it!” 
Wutz-Butz was the 
speaker ; he was addressing his 
soldiers, drawn up before him, 
ready for the fray. Brindle had 
early made her way to Dog 
Corners, and returned with the 
report that on this day the majority 
of the dogs were to be away from 
their village on a hunting trip. 
If the Purrers wished to attack 
there could not be a better time 
than the present to do so. 

126 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


There had been a discussion 
as to the best way of attacking 
the enemy, and Wutz-Butz, as 
General of the Cats, was giving 
his opinion. 

“ There is only one way,” he 
said, “ to catch anything, and that 
is: Pounce on it! How do you 
catch a mouse ? Crouch low, 
keep the tip of your tail wag- 
ging, whiskers forward, eyes 
fixed front, muscles taut — then : 
Jump ! Isn’t that the way ? Well, 
then; there is no other way to 
capture anything. A village is 
precisely like a mouse, only big- 
ger — ” 

A murmur of dissent arose at 
this statement, and Wutz-Butz 
hastily explained. 

“ I mean,” he said, quickly, “ in 

127 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


principle. In principle there is 
no difference between a mouse 
and a village, except in size. That 
difference is evened up by there 
being so many of us. One cat 
catches the little mouse ; many 
cats catch the large village. And 
there you are ! The only way for 
us to do is to march softly to Dog 
Corners, and when we get there 
to form a circle all around it. 
Then we must crouch down, fix 
our eyes on the village — it will 
be awful ! A lot of big, staring 
eyes all around the walls ! Then 
we must prick our ears forward, 
moving them a little at the tips, to 
catch every sound, and keep our 
whiskers stiff, and the tips of our 
tails moving, moving ever so little. 
We must hold our muscles taut, 

128 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


ready ! And then I will give a 
tiny, tiny spit, and then — Like 
one cat we must pounce together, 
up in the air and down on the 
village, claws out and backs stiff ! 
And then Dog Corners will be 
taken ! ” 

All the soldiers purred together, 
like the roll of a drum. The 
programme as laid out by their 
general sounded so attractive! 

“ Are you ready ? ” cried ’Clipsy, 
facing the troops. 

“ Yes ! ” shouted the army, as 
one cat. 

“Will you follow us to danger 
and — if need be — to death ? ” 
demanded ’Clipsy. 

“ Y es, yes, miauw, miauw ! ” 
shrieked the soldiers, deeply * 
stirred. 


129 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Then forward ! March ! ” cried 
Wutz-Butz, wheeling about and 
taking a few steps in the direc- 
tion of Dog Corners. 

Instantly the column was in mo- 
tion, and soon the women and chil- 
dren cats left behind in Purring- 
ton could see only tips of tails 
proudly waving in the air, which, 
an instant later, were lost to sight 
in a cloud of dust. 

The army marched at double- 
quick through the woods, the pad- 
ded feet of the soldiers making no 
sound on the dry leaves and pine- 
needle carpet over which they 
marched. 

Dog Corners lay, as they 
thought, at some distance from 
Purrington. Mrs. Brindle had 
said that it took her three hours 
130 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


to reach it The Purrers did not 
realize the difference that there 
was between the awkward gait of 
the big cow and the swift trot of 
their own lithe bodies until they 
came within hailing distance of 
Dog Corners most unexpectedly, 
and at the expiration of a little 
less than two hours’ time. 

Wutz-Butz softly ordered a halt, 
and then detailed his sub-officers 
to lead four divisions of the army, 
which were to separate, march 
around the village, and then take 
up their positions, with an officer 
at the four points of the compass. 
The army would join its divisions, 
forming a cordon around the en- 
emy, according to the announce- 
ment of his plans made by Gen- 
eral Wutz-Butz before starting out. 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


With a speed and silence most 
creditable to soldiers whose only 
experience in fighting heretofore 
had been in single combats, these 
orders were carried out. 

Swiftly and noiselessly the four 
detachments marched to surround 
the village, and took up their posi- 
tions, with the ends of the detach- 
ments united to form a single line, 
encircling Dog Corners. 

Regarding the village as a gi- 
gantic mouse which they were to 
seize as a single cat, as their skil- 
ful leader had bidden them, the 
cats crouched, eyes forward, whis- 
kers set, ears pointed, tails mov- 
ing, muscles tense, ready to pounce 
at the word of command. Wutz- 
Butz led at the main gate. His 
followers listened for the spit that 
132 


PUSSY - CAT TOWN 


was to be the signal of on- 
slaught. 

Hark! Was that it? No; it 
was but the heavy breathing of an 
old soldier, his asthma increased 
by excitement. But at last — 



Ban- Ban caught the sound first, 
and repeated it. The four offi- 
cers spit together. Instantly the 
entire army arose in the air in a 
great, curving heap, legs out, claws 
extended, and pounced on the vil- 
133 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


lage, like one great cat on one 
large mouse ! 

Panic seized the dogs left at 
home, little dreaming of what was 
to befall them that beautiful 
morning. There were dogs of 
various sizes and colours, and, 
though the greatest fighters had 
gone hunting, there were quite 
enough in the village to have 
made its capture go hard with the 
cats, had it not been that their 
attack was so sudden and entirely 
unexpected. 

Just as they had sprung on the 
village walls, the cats sprang on 
the backs of its citizens, of course 
not touching the puppies, for it 
was not their part to make war on 
babies. The howls with which 
the appearance of the army of 
134 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


cats on the walls had been hailed 
turned into a chorus of yelps as 
each dog felt the sharp claws of 
a cat in his back. The dogs were 
bigger than the cats, and more 
used to fighting, but the nervous 
strength of the attacking party 
more than made up for their 
smaller size and less heavy mus- 
cles. The dogs tried to shake off 
their riders, but the claws did 
their work well, and the Purrers 
stuck like burrs, each soldier to 
his foe, scratching away and call- 
ing upon the dog to give up, until 
the citizens of Dog Corners were 
half-frantic. 

One big yellow dog took the 
lead. “We can’t run around 
here!” he cried. “Follow me!” 
So saying, he dashed for the main 
i35 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


gate, his comrades after him, and 
made for the woods, each with a 
cat on his back, running for dear 
life to escape from the torment 
which was fastened on every 
back. 

Two miles from Dog Corners 
the wild ride slackened. Wutz- 
Butz discovered that the big yel- 
low dog carrying him was the 
King of the Dogs, for Dog Cor- 
ners was not a republic, like Pur- 
rington, but lived under a king, it 
being necessary for dogs to have 
some one to obey, while cats al- 
ways rule themselves. 

When Wutz-Butz discovered 
that he was riding the king, he 
stopped clawing him, and asked 
him to halt for a moment. Rex 
— of course that was the king- 
136 







PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


dog’s name — was only too glad 
to do so; he was fearfully out of 
breath, and his tongue ached from 
lolling so far. 

“Look here, King,” said Wutz- 
Butz — if it had been Tommy 
Traddles he would have begun 
differently, for his reading would 
have taught him to salute a king, 
in opening his remarks, with the 
words: “O king, live for ever!” 
For that is the only correct way 
to open regal conversation. How- 
ever, Wutz-Butz, being a soldier 
and not a scholar, said : “ Look 
here, King, I don’t care about 
dog-back riding all the morning, 
and I guess you’ve got about 
enough of carrying me. I’m the 
general of this army. We came 
down upon you because we had 
137 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


certain proof that you were com- 
ing to take our town, and capture 
or kill all of us. We didn’t seem 
to care about waiting at home for 
that kind of visitors, so we hit 
first — it’s the best way, if there’s 
got to be a fight. Were not 
scrappy over at Purrington, and 
we don’t want fusses with our 
neighbours, for one thing, and we 
don’t want neighbours who are 
liable to drop down on us, for an- 
other. Now we’ve got you beat, 
and we’ll never get off your backs 
till you give in to our terms.” 

“What are your terms ?” panted 
Rex, sadly. 

“ Easy enough. You’re to move 
out of this region altogether, and 
give up Dog Corners to us. We 
will go back there and tear it all 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


down, and there’ll be no more 
dogs and no more corners — we’ll 
round them off!” And Wutz- 
Butz chuckled at his mild joke. 

“You keep on running — with- 
out us, you see, so it will be easier 
— and meet your friends, while we 
go back and tear down your vil- 
lage. You tell your friends that 
you’re going to move — you’re 
king, and what you say goes — 
you seem to go pretty well, too, 
and I mean you to go farther. I 
don’t believe you’ll fare worse ! 
Now, will you do it, or won’t 
you r 

“ As a conquered king I have 
no choice but to accept your 
terms,” said Rex, in a tone so 
sad that it ended in a whine. 

“ Right you are,” said Wutz- 
139 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Butz, cheerfully, not at all im- 
pressed by the king’s superior 
speech. “ Call up your people, 
then, and I’ll tell mine to stop 
clawing while you issue your 
orders.” 

Rex called the dogs together. 
“We are conquered, my people,” 
he said. “ The terms upon which 
I have agreed to yield to this 
gentleman upon my back, who is 
the general of the cats, is that we 
remove far from Dog Corners, 
and go at once.” 

The dogs growled at this an- 
nouncement, but a claw-prick here 
and there reminded them that 
they were anxious to get rid, on 
almost any terms, of the soldiers 
clinging to them, and they changed 
their growl into yelps and howls 

140 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


of acclaim, submitting to the in- 
evitable and the wisdom of their 
king. 

“Now, then, Purrers,” shouted 
Ban-Ban, “ don’t you jump off 
these dogs to the ground. You 
jump from their backs into the 
trees, and stay there until they are 
out of sight. How shall we know 
that they are really gone, and 
won’t come back ? ” 

Rex turned on Ban-Ban a 
scornful face. “You look like 
a gentleman,” he said, “ and if you 
are one you should know that no 
gentleman breaks his pledge. I 
give you my word that we will 
fulfil the terms of our surrender, 
and a dog is a person of honour.” 

Ban -Ban felt rebuked, but 
’Clipsy murmured: “You’re all 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


right, old chap, but I wouldn’t 
trust all your people, if you 
weren’t here to keep them 
straight.” 

At a given signal all the dogs 



“ The cats watched the retreat.” 


ran close to a tree, and his rider 
leaped from the back of each 
of them, ran up to a high bough, 
and from that point the cats 
watched the retreat of their con- 
quered foes. 

It was made without a pause, 

142 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


and in half an hour the cats 
descended and marched back to 
Dog Corners, which was now in- 
deed a deserted village. 

It did not take long for the 
strong claws of the army to tear 
down every building in the place. 
I n a short time Dog Corners was 
no more, and only a pile of ruins 
showed where once it had stood. 

Upon this pile of ruins the 
triumphant army sat to eat the 
lunch which the forsaken larders 
of the dogs amply supplied. 

Then they sat for a time rest- 
ing, washing their faces and clean- 
ing their whiskers, softly rubbing 
their ears with the velvet paws 
which, but a short time before, 
the dogs had found so little like 
velvet. 


143 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


At last Wutz-Butz gave the 
order to march home. The army 
formed once more in order, and 
returned to Purrington. They 
entered the town just at sunset, 



and as they drew near to it, those 
left within its walls knew that 
they were coming victorious, for 
they were marching to the tune of 
“ Marching Through Georgia,” 
to which they sung the following 
words : 


144 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Here we come victorious, 

Our battle fought and won ; 

We made a Pounce most glorious — 

You should have seen them run! 

We’ve spent a day laborious. 

But yet we tasted fun, 

Driving the dogs from their Corners ! 

Chorus: “ Hurrah, hurrah, then give us three 
times three ! 

Hurrah, hurrah, we bring you liberty ! 
The Purrers of dear Purrington are safe 
as safe can be ; 

We’ve wiped out the dogs and their 
Corners ! ” 


145 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER VIII. 

BAN-BAN AND KIKU-SAN FORM AN 
EMBASSY 

^.N-BAN and Kiku-san 
were walking arm and 
arm, talking earnestly. 
It had rained, and the 
streets were muddy, so they had 
linked the right paw of one 
through the left arm of the other, 
and each carried his tail looped 
over his remaining elbow, to keep 
it perfectly dry. 

“ There’s no use in my trying 
to fight it off any longer, Bannie,” 
Kiku was saying, earnestly. “ I 
want to go home. I’m not needed 

I46 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


here ; the city is able to hold its 
own now ; but, if it weren’t, I 
could be spared from it — I’m 
not the go-ahead kind which is 
useful in public affairs. I’ve got 
to see Lois. I’m sure she hasn’t 
any other cat to take my place, 
and worries about me still. I 
feel as if I couldn’t stay in my 
fur, I long so to cuddle down in 
her arms and be petted.” Kiku- 
san’s voice broke into the saddest 
mew as he ended, and Ban-Ban 
looked serious. 

“ I don’t mind telling you, 
Kiku, though I wouldn’t have any 
one else in Purrington know it 
for the world, but I feel pretty 
much the same way,” he said. 
“Of course I’m the sort who can 
cut up capers, no matter what 
147 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


happens, but I want to see Rob, 
and I want to see him badly. 
I’m as sure that he cries nights 
over me as if I saw him. He 
thinks I’ve been killed, or got lost 
where I’ll suffer for food, and be 
abused — I know Rob ! There 
are times when I wonder if I did 
right to leave him, but when I see 
how happy all these poor cats are 
in Purrington, and how well every- 
thing is going, and remember that 
they had no home, and no kind- 
ness until we led them here, then 
I feel certain again that it was 
more than right to leave our home. 
But — to be honest — now the 
work is done, I want to go back 
again, just for a visit, anyway.” 

“It won’t be a visit for me,” 
said Kiku-san, with the decision 

I48 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


with which very gentle people 
usually surprise their friends when 
they are once aroused. “ I ’m 
going home to Lois, and I’m 
going to stay there. I won’t be 
contented, though, Ban, if I have 
to leave you behind : come with 
me ! ” 

“Now wait a bit, Kiku-san, and 
we’ll try to manage it,” said Ban- 
Ban. “ I don’t want to have the 
other Purrers feel as though I had 
deserted them. I ’m not much good 
at patient waiting myself, - — that’s 
more in your line, — but I see 
that there may something turn up 
that will let us go back — for a 
visit ; I don’t dare promise to 
stay — without our seeming to 
run away. You see, I feel re- 
sponsible for the Purrers and 
149 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Purrington, because this city was 
my idea in the first place.” 

“I’ll wait a little longer, then,” 
sighed Kiku-san. “ But, it can’t 
be very long; I can’t stand it.” 

He did not have to wait long. 
When anything is to be, there is 
always a way made for it. 

It began to be whispered 
through Purrington that, after all, 
cats were not quite fitted to live 
entirely without human help. The 
houses that the cat carpenters had 
put up were not warm enough for 
winter ; there were several matters 
on which the Purrers felt the need 
of help and advice. “If there were 
any human beings whom we could 
get to come here, straighten out 
these trifles, and act as our friends 
and advisers, who could be trusted 
150 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


to go between Purrington and the 
human city, looking after us and 
never betraying us, we should be 
better off,” they said. 

The question was where to find 
such friends, how to bring them 
to Purrington, and whom to select 
for such an important trust. 

“ There are plenty of people who 
would do it faithfully,” said T ommy 
T raddles. “ When I was a kitten 
I was taken in from the street by 
the kindest hands, and cared for 
ever after. My law student, my 
first friend, would have stood by 
us and helped us to the last hour 
of his life.” 

“When I was only four weeks 
old I was found by a lady in the 
worst, poorest part of the city,” 
said Bidelia. “ She put me un- 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


der her coat and carried me all 
the afternoon on several business 
calls which she had to make, al- 
though I cried dreadfully. When 
she got me home she cared for me 
like a baby ; were it not for her I 
should not be here to-day. I 
would trust that friend of cats 
with our secrets.” 

“ You see,” added Tommy 
Traddles, with his customary wis- 
dom, “ cats have lived so long 
among people that they have be- 
come dependent upon them. I 
think it would be most wise to 
secure for ourselves such a friend 
as Bidelia and I have known. 
But these two are beyond our 
reach. The question is : Whom 
should we select, and where should 
we find these friends ? ” 

152 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Then up rose Kiku-san, his 
whiskers quivering with eagerness. 
“ I can tell you,” he cried. “ The 
little girl whom I owned, and 
whose love I miss more than I 
can say, is the very one for this 
position. She goes out of her 
way, and bears all sorts of incon- 
venience to help cats. She has 
such a tender heart that the sight 
of abuse of one of us makes her 
half-ill with grief and pity. Get 
Lois to help you, Purrers ; she 
would die rather than betray you.” 

“ And Rob ! ” added Ban-Ban, 
springing up as Kiku-san sat 
down. “He is a little fellow, 
only eight, but he is as brave as 
a lion when it comes to fighting 
for any abused animal. He has 
a good mother, who has taught 
153 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


him that we are all one big family, 
the human beings, and all the 
dumb creatures — as they call us, 
because they don’t understand our 
language ! He touches any of us 
as gently as a paw without claws 
can touch, and he plays with us 
as well as a kitten could — better, 
because he can think of more 
things to do. He is a brave boy, 
the real sort of brave boy. They 
are always kind, you know, and 
don’t pretend to be brave by doing 
cowardly things, such as hurting 
a helpless creature. I’ve heard 
Rob tell other boys that it was 
manly to be gentle, and cowardly 
to be cruel, because a true man 
was a gentle- man ! There’s his 
mother for you again ; that’s what 
she teaches him ! Rob’s the little 
154 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


boy I owned. You get Rob and 
Lois both on your side, Purrers, 
and you’ll bless the day Kiku-san 
and I told you about them.” 

’Clipsy arose as Ban-Ban sat 
down, shaking his head gravely. 
“ This little Lois may be all 
right,” he said. “ Girls are usually 
more or less good to us, but a 
boy ! I’m doubtful of the wisdom 
of trusting a boy.” 

“ There are boys and boys,” 
said Tommy Traddles, mildly. 
“ The right sort of boy is a brave 
fellow, and so must be a kind one, 
as Ban-Ban has said, and that sort 
is trustworthy, one on whom you 
can depend. Of course, friends 
and Purrers, you can rely on Ban- 
Ban’s judgment of the boy he 
owned and lived with from his 


*55 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


kittenhood. But if you need 
further witnesses, let me add that 
Madam Laura, Bidelia, and I 
have known both Lois and Rob 
for a long time, and they are both 
the very ones to help us carry on 
our city, and be our friends 
through the winter that lies before 
us. They are both all, and more 
than all, that Kiku-san and Ban- 
Ban have said they were.” 

Madam Laura and Bidelia 
purred their entire assent to this 
statement. 

“Very well, then,” said ’Clipsy, 
“ what are we to do about it, if 
they are such good children and 
good friends to cats ? How shall 
we let them know about us, and 
get them to stand by us ? ” 

Tommy Traddles and Ban-Ban 
156 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


had never cared much for each 
other, but T ommy T raddles proved 
at this moment how superior his 
nature was to personal considera- 
tions of mere fancy. That wise 
cat, whose thoughtful gaze saw 
through most cats with whom 
he was in close contact, had seen 
that Ban-Ban and Kiku-san were 
longing for their beloved children, 
and he arose now to answer 
’Clipsy’s question. 

“ I move that Ban- Ban and 
Kiku-san be appointed an em- 
bassy ” — the Purrers gasped at 
this hard word — “ to wait on 
Lois and Rob in their own 
homes. They will be able, I am 
sure, to get the children to follow 
them here, and when they come 
we shall be able to talk to them, 
157 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


for you know that when they pass 
the gate of Purrington they will 
at once understand our speech. 
Will the Purrers who are in favour 
of asking Ban- Ban and Kiku-san 
to return to their old homes, and 
to bring Lois and Rob to visit us 
here, please signify it by holding 
up their right paws and saying: 
‘ Mew ! ’ ” 

A chorus of mews filled the 
air, and right paws waved like 
a grove of pussy-willows. 

“ Contrary-minded, spit ! ” said 
Doctor Traddles, and waited. 
Not a spit was heard. 

“ It is a vote ! ” announced the 
Doctor. “ Ban-Ban and Kiku-san, 
you are appointed to go to the 
city, the human city, as an em- 
bassy from Pussy-Cat Town, and 
158 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


bring here Lois and Rob to act 
as our advisers and friends hence- 
forth. You will set out at your 
earliest convenience.” 

Ban-Ban ran up to Tommy 
T raddles and shook his paw. “ I 
never sufficiently appreciated you, 
T oramy,” he said, “ but I see that 
you have tried to give Kiku and 
me happiness, and you have suc- 
ceeded. Count me your devoted 
friend from this day forth.” 

And Kiku-san came and rubbed 
his cheek against Tommy’s with 
his soft coo, which at once em- 
barrassed the Doctor dreadfully, 
and pleased him beyond words. 

There was a great flurry of 
preparation in Purrington ; it was 
exciting to all the Purrers to feel 
that two among them, and one of 
159 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


these their founder, were returning 
to the world they had forsaken. 
Many were the messages with 
which Ban- Ban and , Kiku-san 
were charged ; many the errands 



they were asked to do, should 
time and chance allow them. 

Before starting, Kiku-san had 
to wash his beautiful thick white 
suit, for in Purrington it was the 
rule that each one should do his 
own washing. 

160 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Bidelia and Madam Laura put 
up a lunch for the travellers, al- 
though the distance was not great, 
and W utz-Butz tried to teach them 
a certain stroke with the right 
paw, followed instantly by one of 
another sort with the left, which 
he knew, and which he said would 
be sufficient defence against any 
attack which might be made upon 
them on the way. 

But Kiku-san refused to enter- 
tain the idea of fighting, even in 
self-defence, and Ban-Ban said 
he’d risk his four slender, fast legs 
to take him out of reach of 
danger, and so Wutz-Butz had to 
give up his purpose of teaching 
them the noble art of self-defence, 
to his own great disappoint- 
ment. 

161 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Purrington gave its ambassa- 
dors a farewell dinner. Mr. S- 
Katz furnished it with his most 
delicious meats, and all the ladies 
in town cooked for it. It was 
such a tremendous dinner that the 
idea of carrying a luncheon on 
their journey seemed really funny 
to Ban-Ban and Kiku-san ; they 
ate so much at the dinner that 
they could not fancy themselves 
ever again being hungry. 

When the banquet ended all 
the cats rose from their chairs, 
and raising their glasses of dis- 
tilled catnip high in the air, and 
keeping time with their left 
paws on the table to the glid- 
ing air of “Flow Gently, 
Sweet Afton,” sang this farewell 
song: 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Go forth to your old friends, dear cats, from 
the new, 

For Purrington sends you, an embassy true ; 

We hope that for your sakes the children may be 

The guide and the stay of our Pussy city. 

Then hasten, O Ban-Ban, your steps, for you 
know 

How blank our days and our nights when you go, 

For white Kiku-san and our Founder Maltese 

Are Purrington’s glory, so hasten back — please ! 

“ Delay not, though tempted with cushions of 
silk ; 

The world’s cream is rich, but we give you love’s 
milk. 

And better plain fare, when it’s seasoned with 
love, 

Than banquets of kings, whom a cat’s look may 
prove. 

Then speed ye in going, but speed ye more fast 

When your whiskers are pointed due homeward 
at last; 

Defeated, triumphant, we’ll hail your return ; 

With love for you, dear cats, our feline hearts 
burn.” 


163 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER IX. 

VISITORS TO PURRINGTON 

AN-BAN and Kiku-san 
started out from Pur- 
rington at a good pace, 
swinging along through 
the wood -path and out into the 
open road. At least Kiku swung; 
he had a very swinging gait, but 
Ban-Ban trotted along with his 
usual businesslike air. As they 
put behind them more and more 
length of road, and the way ahead 
shortened, their speed increased, 
driven onward by their impatience 
to get home. For these two 

164 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


petted cats found themselves 
thinking of their old home as 
“ home,” and not Purrington. 
Nor was this strange, since they 
had been so short a time in Pur- 



rington, and had spent all the rest 
of their lives being made much of 
by the children to whom they 
were hastening. 

They met with no particular 
adventures. Once a dog chased 
165 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


them up a tree, and again they 
had to run away from an old lady 
in a victoria, who, seeing this pair 
of beautiful cats hurrying along 
the road, side by side, ordered 
her driver to stop and let her try 
to catch them. She was a cat- 
lover, but to Ban-Ban and Kiku- 
san’s minds as much to be dreaded 
as the dog. However, they had 
no difficulty in getting away from 
her, since she was past the age of 
rapid running, and her dignity 
forbade her chasing cats a long 
distance down the public way. 

Timid Kiku-san began to be 
exhausted from the nervousness 
of his journey, but Ban-Ban kept 
up his heart and urged him on, 
knowing quite well himself that 
there was considerable risk in 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


travelling alone and unpro- 
tected. 

But this only made that spirited 
cat hasten the faster, and, as they 
drew near the city, impatience 
seemed to wing each of the eight 
dusty paws, and they broke into a 
run, and reached the rear of their 
former homes — they stood side 
by side, you know — half an hour 
at least before they had calculated 
on being there. 

They sat down under the fence 
to get their breath and brush up 
their dusty clothes. It was hard 
work to do this, for they could 
hear plainly the voices of Rob 
and Lois shouting to each other 
in play, and burned to rush into 
their arms. 

It was a very hasty toilet that 
167 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


the travellers made. Ban-Ban 
sprang to his feet, shook out the 
places in his fur which his rapid 
licking had flattened, and cried : 
“ Come on, Kiku ; I won’t wait 
another minute ! ” 

Kiku-san arose, shook himself 
also, and said : “You don’t sup- 
pose I want to wait, do you ? 
Lois is just on the other side of 
that fence!” Cold print cannot 
convey the happiness in white 
Kiku-san’s voice. 

They sprang together to the 
top of the fence. Here they 
paused a moment to look with 
purring hearts down on the old 
garden. There was the pink- 
bordered flower-bed ; among its 
fragrant pinks Kiku-san had al- 
ways loved to take his nap after 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


lunch, when the shadow rested 
there. And there was the foun- 
tain, on the edge of which Ban- 
Ban had loved to sit and see his 
saucy short face reflected in the 
water, and from which he had 
been rescued once, just in time, 
in his early kittenhood. And 
there, running like colts around 
the corner of the house, came 
Lois and Rob! 

That sight brought the cats 
down from the fence in a twink- 
ling, and side by side they ran 
forward, backs and tails up, joy 
sparkling on their very whisker- 
tips. Rob and Lois stopped ab- 
ruptly and gazed at the cats. 

Then the garden rang with 
their shout: “It’s Kiku! Kiku- 
san and Bannie-Ban!” screamed 

I69 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Lois. “ Kiku, my darling, Kiku, 
you lamb - cat, where have you 
been all this time ? ” 

She gathered the happy, purr- 
ing white creature into her arms 
and showered kisses on him, mur- 
muring the while, too delighted 
to utter words. And Kiku-san 
rubbed his face against Lois’s, 
and purred and purred, and gave 
little mews and coos of rapture, 
till Lois knew the truth — that 
he was as glad to see her again 
as she was to get him back. 

Rob’s face turned dark red 
with emotion when he saw Ban- 
Ban, whom he had given up as 
dead or lost for ever. “ Why, 
Ban-Ban ! ” he managed to say, 
but he could hardly speak. 

Ban-Ban spread his fore feet 

170 

































































I « 

f 






























































^ I 

















































































PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


wide apart and put down the 
top of his head between them 
till it rested on the ground as he 
saw Rob coming toward him ; this 
was Ban’s old way of showing 
pleasure, and it upset Rob com- 
pletely. 

Boys cannot cry when they 
feel strongly, but Rob was dan- 
gerously near tears of joy. He 
gathered silky Ban-Ban into his 
arms, Ban - Ban flattening his 
body against Rob’s in his old 
way till he fitted Rob like a 
Russian squirrel coat. Rob hid 
his excited face in Ban-Ban’s 
close, fine fur. “ Ah, Ban ! ” was 
all he said, but Ban understood; 
it was quite enough, and he 
purred so loud he could have 
been heard all over the garden, 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


for Ban- Ban was a wonderful 
songster. 

After awhile the children were 
able to talk — -indeed, they were 
not able to stop talking. They 
both chattered at once, exclaiming 
over the sleek and prosperous 
look the two beloveds wore, and 
their entire indifference to the 
food brought them. Where could 
they have been ? Ban- Ban and 
Kiku-san ran into their respective 
houses ahead of the children. 
Like a flash Ban-Ban rushed 
from room to room, seeing that 
nothing was changed, and seeing, 
too, that there was no other cat 
nor smallest kitten in the house 
taking his place. Rob was con- 
stant to him. 1 1 was a great temp- 
tation to settle down in com- 

172 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


fort and love, and never to return 
to Purrington! And yet not a 
great temptation, either, when he 
remembered the Purrers all wait- 
ing his return, and leaning on him 
as their Founder. 

Kiku-san looked up into Lois’s 
face as he strolled from room to 
room in his house, finding, as 
Ban-Ban was finding, his place 
still empty. He was so glad to 
gpt home that it seemed to him 
that he never, never could go 
back to Purrington. He thought 
with dread of the perils of the 
journey which he was to take 
twice again, if he returned — for 
he had made up his mind that, 
with or without Ban-Ban, he was 
coming back to Lois when his duty 
toward the Purrers was done. 

173 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


He looked up into Lois’s face. 
It was just the same sweet, old- 
fashioned little face as ever. Her 
brown hair, fine and straight, was 
tied with just the same big, soft 
ribbon; her eyes, as blue as the 
ribbon, looked at him with just 
the same look of devoted love. 
White Kiku mewed aloud, think- 
ing, with pity for himself, how 
long it had been since he had 
seen this dear little gentle face. 

Rob and Ban- Ban had a game 
of hide-and-seek that night before 
they went to bed. It made the 
Maltese cat quite crazy with joy 
to hear the whistle again which 
he had heard from his kitten- 
hood, and to dash up and down- 
stairs, looking behind portieres 
and doors for Rob, in the old 
174 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


way. And he puffed like a little 
gray porpoise from sheer excite- 
ment when he found Rob, and 
the boy darted out at him and 
chased him down - stairs, where 
Ban-Ban would scuttle into a 
place of hiding in his own turn 
and lie, with close-wrapped tail, 
while Rob looked for him, softly 
calling : “ Where is Ban ? Why, 
where is Ban ? ” But Ban-Ban 
knew better than to come out ; 
he would lie as still as stillness 
till he was found, and then dash 
at Rob with all his fur on end. 
Oh, it was glorious ! Ban- Ban 
thought anew that there were no 
comrades like human ones when 
a cat was lucky enough to find 
the right sort. 

Ban-Ban went to sleep at last 
175 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


on Rob’s feet. But in the next 
house Kiku-san crept into Lois’s 
arms, just as he had always done, 
both paws around her neck, his 
white cheek pillowed on the little 
girl’s rosy one, and softly purred 
himself to sleep in his quiet voice, 
the kind of purring you can feel 
more plainly than you can hear. 
And Lois was purring, too, in 
her loving little heart, for she had 
mourned bitterly for her lost dar- 
ling, and words could not have 
told how glad she was to have 
him back. 

In the morning, however, Lois 
ran over to see Rob, Kiku-san 
held tight in her arms. “ I don’t 
know what ails Kiku,” she cried, 
as soon as Rob and Ban-Ban 
were within hearing. “He acts 

176 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


as if he wanted to tell me some- 
thing and make me go some- 
where. I do wish I could un- 
derstand.” 

“That’s queer,” said Rob. 
“ Ban-Ban is acting the same 
way. I told him a little while 
ago to go ahead, I’d follow him. 
I’m sure he wants me to go 
somewhere.” 

Ban-Ban and Kiku-san looked 
at each other, and the children 
thought they were mewing. What 
they were saying, or, what Kiku- 
san was saying, was this : “If 
we’ve got to go back, Ban-Ban, 
we ought to go soon, for those 
Purrers are waiting for us anx- 
iously. But I tell you now I am 
coming back here as soon as we 
settle things in Purrington.” 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“To tell the truth I’ve about 
made up my mind to coming back, 
too,” said Ban- Ban. “ But the 
only thing to do now is to hurry 
to Purrington. If only we can 
make these blessed children fol- 
low us! You see it will be safe 
enough going back by daylight if 
they are with us.” 

“ N ow do hear them mew ! ” 
cried Lois, in a worried tone. 
“ Kiku, darling, what do you 
want ? ” 

“ Go on, Ban-Ban ; I’ll come,” 
said Rob at a venture. “ Mamma 
knows I’m going out, and she’ll 
tell your mother, Lois.” You see 
he little thought what was to be 
the end of this walk. 

He went to the outside door 
and set it open. Instantly Ban- 

178 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Ban darted out, followed more 
slowly by Kiku-san, and the chil- 
dren went out on the steps and 
watched them. Both cats came 
back, rubbed their heads against 
Lois’s skirt and Rob’s knicker- 
bockers ; mewed a little ; ran 
ahead, came back, and did every- 
thing that they could think of 
to coax their boy and girl to come 
after them. 

Rob took Lois’s hand. “ They 
want us,” he said. “ It’s queer, 
but we must go.” 

Ban-Ban immediately stood on 
his head, between his forepaws, 
in his most delighted fashion, 
and Kiku-san said : “ M-m-m-m- 
mmmm ! ” as he always did when 
he was happy. And so the chil- 
dren knew that they were doing 

179 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


what their beloved cats wanted 
them to do, and followed steadily. 

When they found that Rob 
and Lois fully understood what 
was wanted of them, Ban-Ban and 
Kiku-san stopped looking back at 
them, and swung into a steady, 
rapid trot. 

“ They know just what they 
want and where it is,” said Rob, 
wondering. Lois was too amazed 
to speak. Still more surprised the 
children grew as the cats took 
them briskly along the road, 
toward the outskirts of the city, 
and finally into the suburbs, 
and, still farther, along a country 
road. 

“ What can it mean ? ” said 
Lois, but Rob held her hand tight, 
so she was not much afraid, only 
180 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


for the cats when a dog came in 
sight. But there was no mis- 
hap, and little delay on the way. 
Toward the last of the journey, 
just as they had done in going 
back to their old home, Ban-Ban 
and Kiku-san broke into a run, 
and the two cats and two children 
came in sight of Purrington on 
the trot. 

“ Oh, look, Rob ! ” cried Lois, 
whose blue eyes were long of 
vision. “ There is a city, a tiny 
city, with little, wee houses ! What 
can it mean ? ” 

On the walls the children saw 
a great crowd of cats, all wav- 
ing paws and tails, and mewing 
wildly. 

“ My goodness ! I believe it’s 
a city of cats ! ” gasped Rob, 

181 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


dropping Lois’s hand in his 
amazement. “ F or pity’s sake — ” 

But he could get no further, for 
Ban-Ban and Kiku-san dashed 
through the gates of Purrington, 
the children after them, too dazed 
to realize fully the wonderful 
adventure that had befallen 
them. 

And the instant they passed 
the gates it was just as Tommy 
T raddles had said it would be : 
Rob and Lois understood every 
word that the cats on the walls, 
and swarming around their feet, 
were saying. And they discov- 
ered that what they had taken for 
a chorus of mews was in reality a 
song of welcome, sung to the air 
of “ Bonnie Dundee,” with these 
words : 


182 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Welcome, oh, welcome, you are truly well come, 

Dear Ban-Ban and Kiku-san, back to your home ! 

To Purrington first our good Brindle Ban brought, 

And sympathy now from our child friends he’s 
sought. 

Chorus: “ Then climb on the walls, and wave 
happy tails ; 

When Ban-Ban attempts he sure never 
fails ; 

Fling Pussy-Town’s gates wide and 
mightily mew, 

Let both cats and children trium- 
phantly through ! 

“ We waited your coming unable to purr, 

While anxious thoughts rumpled our minds and 
our fur ; 

Afar off* we saw you, and mounted the walls, 

Our voices quite hoarse from our eager catcalls ! 

Chorus: “AW hail to you, Ban-Ban, and hail, 
Kiku-san ! 

All hail, little woman, and hail, little 
man ! 

Our joy shall be full since with us you 
have part, 

Kind childhood, kind cathood united 
in heart ! ” 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER X. 

THE PURRERS BESTOW THE 

FREEDOM OF PURRINGTON 

HE instant that the last 
note of this song had 
died away the Purrers, 
of all sizes and colours, 
surrounded the wonder-stricken 
children. Much as she loved 
cats, Lois shrank against Rob, 
frightened by the unbelievable 
state of things. 

A city of cats ! Cats singing 
“ Bonnie Dundee,” with real 
English words ! 

But as soon as Lois and Rob 
had had a moment in which to 

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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


adjust themselves to the queer 
adventure befalling them, they 
found that they were beginning 
to have the best time of all their 
lives. 

Madam Laura came up, say- 
ing : “ My dears, you don’t know 
how glad we are — Doctor 
T raddles, Bidelia, and myself — 
to see you again.” 

It was so funny to hear her 
speaking to them like a grown-up 
lady that Rob and Lois barely 
kept themselves from laughing. 
Then Lois said : “Why, you are 
the three cats we missed from our 
neighbourhood when Ban- Ban and 
Kiku-san disappeared ! Look, 
Rob ! Here is that beautiful 
tiger-cat — this lady calls him 
Doctor Traddles — and the little 

185 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


tortoise-shell who used to play so 
prettily — Bidelia, this lady says 
she is called. We are glad to 
see you, too; we were dreadfully 
worried about you.” 

“If you will follow us to the 
city hall we have arranged to 
present you with the freedom of 
the city,” said Tommy Traddles, 
bowing his thanks for Lois’s 
anxiety about him. 

“ I wonder what that means,” 
Lois whispered. 

“ I ’ve read about it ; they used 
to do it in the Middle Ages,” 
Rob whispered back. “ I don’t 
know what it means, but it’s a 
great honour.” 

“ T ommy T raddles is a scholar ; 
he will tell you what it means, 
Rob,” said Ban-Ban. and Rob 

186 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


nearly tumbled down, he was so 
surprised to hear his own cat 
speak to him, for so far neither 
Ban-Ban nor Kiku-san had 
spoken directly to the children. 

“It means,” said Tommy Trad- 
dles, promptly, not unwilling to 
reveal his learning, though he 
never tried to display it, “ it means 
this : While you stay with us, and 
always on all the other visits which 
we hope you will make often, 
everything in Purrington is yours: 
our houses, our shops, our services 
are entirely yours. We desire to 
beg you to accompany us to the 
city hall to receive this freedom 
with proper ceremonies.” 

“Thank you very much,” said 
Rob, a trifle dismayed at the pros- 
pect of taking part in public cere- 

187 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


monies in the cats’ city hall. “ But 
I don’t understand what this city 
is, nor why Ban-Ban and Kiku- 
san brought us here. Would you 
mind telling us ? Because we feel 
queer.” 

“ Haven’t you explained Pur- 
rington to them and why you 
sought them ? ” demanded T om- 
my Traddles, turning reproach- 
fully to Ban- Ban. 

“ Why, how could I ? ” retorted 
Ban-Ban, “ when I couldn’t speak 
to them so that they would under- 
stand till they had passed our 
gates ? It was all we could do 
to get them to follow us here, 
wasn’t it, Rob ? ” 

“It certainly was,” said Rob, 
feeling that he must be talking in 
a dream. 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“Take Rob and Lois to your 
house — yours and Bidelia’s — 
and there tell them the story of 
how we came to be a city. They 
will like to see your house any- 
way, and we can delay the pre- 
sentation of the freedom of the 
city for half an hour,” said 
Tommy Traddles, graciously. 

“ Come, Lois,” said Kiku-san, 
and Lois, recognizing the familiar 
cooing note in his voice, realized 
that he must have often said : 
“ Come, Lois,” in the old days, 
before she had understood his 
speech. 

She gladly accompanied the 
dear white cat, while Rob walked 
beside Ban-Ban. 

“It tires me to walk long on 
my hind legs, Lois,” said Kiku- 

189 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


san, “ or I would gladly take your 
hand.” 

“ I should like to carry you, if 
you wouldn’t mind,” said Lois, 
doubtfully. “ We could talk more 
easily than if I had to bend down 
so very much — and I always 
carried you.” 

“ Certainly, you shall carry me, 
dear,” said Kiku, at once holding 
up his paws. Lois drew him to 
her breast, as she had done in her 
own home ; Rob shouldered Ban- 
Ban, and thus they progressed 
comfortably, hearing without diffi- 
culty the story of the founding of 
Purrington, which was poured into 
their ears by their beloved cats. 

“ And that is why you went 
away ! ” cried Rob, admiringly, 
when Ban-Ban had finished the 

190 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


story. He regarded the Maltese 
with eyes of new respect as the 
founder of a refuge for the unfor- 
tunate ones of his kind. 

“You darling, darling Kiku- 
san-chrysanthemum blossom!” 
Lois was saying, as she hugged 
Kiku closer. “You don’t know 
how I love you — and Bannie- 
boy ! It is such a comfort to 
know that there is a place like this 
where cats can live happily ever 
after ! I ’m glad you did it, 
though I’ve cried myself ’most 
sick over your going off, and wor- 
ried and worried ! Our mothers 
tried to get Rob and me to have 
another kitten, but we just couldn’t 
look at another one ! But it’s 
worth it all to have a city for 
poor, friendless cats ! ” 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“Well, I should think we would 
be the protector, or whatever- 
you-call-it, of Purrington,” Lois 
heard Rob saying to Ban-Ban : 
“We’ll come out here once a 
week, and we’ll bring all kinds 
of things to you — Oh, say, 
Bannie, not to you, though ! 
Won’t you come home again, and 
let Purrington be run by the Pur- 
rers without you ? You’ve got it 
started, and Lois and I can’t 
stand it without you and Kiku- 
san.” 

Ban-Ban put his mouth close to 
Rob’s ear and whispered. 

“ You’re the stuff ! ” Rob cried, 
joyously, and Lois knew it was 
going to be all right, even before 
Kiku whispered to her : “ I 

couldn’t stay away from you to 
192 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


save my life, Lois. We’re going 
back when you do.” 

The children could not get 
inside of Bidelia’s house, but they 
surveyed the rooms through the 
windows, and were delighted with 
the tiny, cosy arrangements, and 
its neatness. The three kittens 
were led forth by Bidelia, very 
beautiful to behold in fresh rib- 
bons, but Puttel and Dolly each 
had a paw in her mouth for shy- 
ness. The instant they saw the 
children they forgot to be shy, 
but ran at once to them to be 
petted. Lois gathered Puttel and 
Dolly up into her neck, and here 
they remained through the cere- 
monies at the city hall, while 
Nugget, who was, now that he 
had been freed from Scamp’s 
193 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


influence, the same good, obedient 
little Nugget as of old, sat on 
Rob’s other shoulder, where Ban- 
Ban good-naturedly tolerated him. 

The city hall had been hung 
with flowers — the late flowers of 
September — and all the Purrers 
were seated in the body of the 
hall when Rob and Lois arrived. 
Tommy Traddles, ’Clipsy, Wutz- 
Butz, and two of the old cats met 
them at the door and escorted 
them to the seats of honour on 
the platform, where Mrs. Brindle 
was already seated, as another 
distinguished and useful guest of 
Purrington, to Lois’s great dis- 
may, for she was in mortal terror 
of a cow. But, when Ban-Ban 
and Kiku-san introduced Rob 
and Lois to Brindle, Lois saw at 

194 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


once that her fears were foolish. 
A sweeter-eyed, more gentle-ap- 
pearing person than Mrs. Brindle 
it had never been her fortune to 
meet, and the Extract of New 
Mown Hay, and Sweet Clover 
with which she seemed to be per- 
fumed made her sweet in another 
sense. So Lois took the chair 
placed for her between Rob and 
Brindle without a qualm, and 
looked at the meeting with the 
greatest interest. Such a lot of 
cats, and such nice, happy, sleek 
ones she had never seen before. 
Mr. S. Katz, the butcher, sat 
directly in front of the platform, 
and his prosperity stood out about 
his stout person like a rich gar- 
ment. 

“ Please pinch me, Rob — not 
195 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


too hard,” whispered Lois, lean- 
ing over to hold out her little pink 
palm to Rob, as she realized that 
this was a cats’ City Hall, that 
this was a meeting held by cats 
to honour them, and that she was 
seated on the platform beside the 
cats’ cow, with her own Kiku-san, 
as well as Ban-Ban, Tommy 
T raddles, Wutz-Butz, ’Clipsy, and 
two other cats whose names she 
did not know on the platform 
with her as a committee. 

“You pinch back,” whispered 
Rob, pbediently giving Lois a 
little nip and then holding out to 
her his own square, brown hand. 

It would be impossible to give 
the speeches made on this occa- 
sion. Doctor Traddles surpassed 
all his previous flights of scholar- 

I96 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


ship in a review of the ancient 
custom of bestowing the freedom 
of a city upon those whom that 
city wished to honour. Rob and 
Lois found themselves bowing 
deeply to the assembled Purrers, 
and Rob made a speech of thanks, 
not nearly as long and clever as 
Tommy Traddles, but which was 
received with the kindest attention 
and applause by the Purrers. 

Then Rob and Lois gave their 
solemn promise always to stand 
by Purrington, to visit it often, 
and in every way to give it the 
best of their advice and help, 
which would be more valuable 
every year as they grew from little 
children into big boy and girl, and 
then into manhood and woman- 
hood. 


197 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


With this pledge, which the 
Purrers hailed with a perfect 
storm of shouts and applause, the 
ceremonies ended, and pure fun 
was the order of the day. 

Rob and Lois went through all 
the streets, saw T ommy T raddles s 
school, — through its windows, of 
course, — S. Katz’s shop, with its 
fresh food temptingly displayed 
for sale ; the other shops, and all 
the houses, for not a Purrer of 
Purrington was there who would 
not have felt slighted if Rob 
and Lois had not visited his 
home. 

The children rested in the 
park, which was right in the 
middle of the city, that afternoon, 
and Lois had never had such a 
beautiful, kitteny time in all her life. 

198 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Every kitten in Purrington came 
out and got up into her lap, and 
over her shoulders, and sat on her 
back, their downy fur brushing 
her cheeks and hands and arms 
until Lois felt that she could 
hardly bear the delight of it, and 
Kiku-san did not half like it, for 
he always was a bit inclined to 
jealousy. 

That evening there was a ball 
given in the hall, to which every- 
body went, even the smallest 
kitten, for this was a great day in 
the annals of Purrington ! 

First the kittens danced their 
funny, pretty cotillion figure which 
they had given at Bidelia’s tea, 
and Rob and Lois went nearly 
out of their minds with delight 
over it. Then all the cats came 

199 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


out on the floor to dance, and the 
children discovered that they 
should have to dance with each 
cat, Rob with the ladies, and 
Lois with the gentlemen, or else 
offend some one mortally. It was 
not clear to them at first how they 
should manage it, because there 
really was a great difference — 
more than three feet — between 
their height and their partners’ ! 
But when they discovered that 
they were expected to whirl about 
with their partners in their arms, 
it became very simple, though not 
any less queer to be waltzing one’s 
very best with a cat talking pleas- 
antly in one’s arms ; — light, so- 
ciety conversation, suited to one’s 
partner at a ball, — while a black 
cat played the violin for the 
200 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


dancing in a manner that would 
have made a cigar-store Indian 
“ tread the mazy.” 

It was a beautiful and pain- 
fully funny sight to watch the 



A black cat played the violin ” 


Purrers dancing together. They 
were so graceful, so full of the 
real waltzing spirit, that the chil- 
dren gave up all hope of ever 
again admiring human dancing. 
It was pleasant also to dance 
201 


PUSSY CAT TOWN 


the square dances that night, 
with seven smiling cats making 
up the set ! Rob and Lois did 
not once dance in the same set, 
to divide their attentions as much 
as possible. It was like a dream 
of a puss-in-the-corner game to 
cross over, balance corners, swing 
partners and opposites, when there 
came forward to meet you a large, 
beautiful, joyous cat, gaily be- 
decked with an immense bow. 
Lois reflected that her hair-rib- 
bons were the only thing about 
her costume suitable to such a 
beautiful ball, and Rob’s stout 
gray cheviot knickerbockers and 
pleated jacket looked suddenly 
very clumsy, among the sleek and 
shining fur around him. 

Suddenly the Purrers began to 
202 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


sing as they danced, and the chil- 
dren found themselves singingwith 
them, though they did not under- 
stand where they had learned the 
words. For this is what they 
were singing, to the air of “ Pop 
Goes the Weasel:” 

“ Paws around and forward and back. 

Balance to corners lightly ; 

When pussy-cats the lanciers attack, 

It is a sight most sightly. 

Swing your partner, tails enlinked, 

Lady in the centre ; 

Each beau must keep his whiskers prinked 
If he would content her. 

“ Paw to partner, right and left, 

Halt half-way for bowing ; 

While you glide through, swift and deft, 
Keep the tune miauwing ! 

Chasse all, a two-step dance, 

Each with partner mated. 

Then to supper gaily prance — 

You’ll find tables freighted.” 

203 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER XI. 

AN ELECTION AND A DEFECTION 

T was just a little dis- 
maying to the children 
at the close of the ball 
to be suddenly brought 
face to face with the fact that 
they were going to spend the 
night in Purrington. Because 
there really was not any arrange- 
ment for the sort of night which 
up to this moment Lois and Rob 
had considered the only kind of 
night which one could spend. 
Bedsteads, for instance, had here- 
tofore been as much a part of 
204 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


their idea of night as was the set- 
ting of the sun and coming on of 
darkness; but, though there was 
plenty of soft bedding and good 
mattresses, or, rather, beds, of 
straw and leaves, there was not 
a bedstead in Purrington. Then, 
too, there was much to be desired 
— from the children’s view-point 
— in the arrangements for bath- 
ing. They could not imagine 
how they were to wash their 
faces and hands in the same way 
that the Purrers did — and yet 
was there any other way? Lois 
delicately tried her tongue on the 
knuckle of her left forefinger, and 
instantly felt sure that she could 
not manage to bathe in cat fash- 
ion. 

But the cats who had lived 

205 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


among nice human beings, Bi- 
delia, Madam Laura, and Ban- 
Ban and Kiku-san, themselves 
solved the doubts that were fill- 
ing their guests’ minds by tell- 
ing them that in the morning 
they would lead them down to 
the river Meuse, “where they 
could wet their faces and hands 
all they pleased,” said Kiku-san, 
with a shudder. 

The children were to sleep in 
the city hall, that being the only 
building in the place large enough 
to hold them, and Bidelia with 
her kittens, Madam Laura, Tommy 
Traddles, ’Clipsy, Wutz-Butz, and, 
of course, their own dear cats, 
were to stay with them through 
the night. After they had lain 
down in the beds provided for 
206 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


them, Lois and Rob found that 
they were very comfortable in- 
deed. 

Ban - Ban, T ommy T raddles, 
’Clipsy, and little Nugget slept 
around Rob, fitting themselves 
beautifully and cosily around and 
into the curves of his body. Of 
course Kiku-san crept into Lois’s 
arms, but Madam Laura, Bidelia, 
and Dolly Varden and Puttel 
added themselves to her couch, 
and the little girl fell asleep, 
supremely happy, for the more 
cats the merrier Lois was — she 
never could get enough of their 
purr and their fur. 

Wutz-Butz stayed awake, on 
guard all night. 

The entire party was awakened 
early by the kittens, who were 

207 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


ready to play before the sun was 
fairly up. But it did not matter ; 
every one was perfectly rested, 
and it was to be such a busy day 
that it was necessary to make it 
a long one in order to get into it 
all that must be done. 

Bathing in the Meuse proved 
to be a pleasant experience, and 
breakfast was delicious eaten un- 
der the trees. As soon as it was 
cleared away, all the cats seated 
themselves in a circle and waited, 
washing their paws and faces once 
in awhile, but very lightly, much 
as human beings use finger-bowls 
after meals, and only to occupy 
the time. 

Tommy Traddles came for- 
ward at last and addressed Rob 
and Lois. 


208 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“We should like your advice 
on matters which are most impor- 
tant,” he said. “First of all, we 
shall be cold here in the winter. 
How shall we warm our houses?” 

Rob considered a few mo- 
ments, while Lois looked at him 
anxiously; for the life of her she 
could not see how it was to be 
done. 

“I think,” said Rob, looking 
up, suddenly, with a bright smile 
of relief, “ I think you had better 
move all your houses together and 
take down one wall of each, so 
that they will be turned into one 
big house. Then, I think, you 
ought to have a chimney right in 
the middle of that one big house 
and keep a fire in it, and let every- 
body in the city live in that house.” 

209 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“Wouldn’t it be hard to move 
all these houses ? ” asked Lois. 

“Not a bit,” said the black and 
white cat who had helped to carry 
Dolly Varden on the day the pil- 
grims had come to the site of the 
present city; he was the head of 
the carpenter cats. “Not a bit, 
ma’am. We’d just as soon move 
them houses as not — there ain’t 
no work doin’ now, and we car- 
penters hate bein’ idle. Them 
houses was built so quick you 
wouldn’t think it, and they can 
be moved as easy as catchin’ a 
small mouse. The boy’s got a 
good notion ; I reccymend we 
take it up.” 

“ The question arises,” began 
Tommy Traddles, his English 
sounding more elegant than ever 
210 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


after the slips of the carpenter 
cat, who had been only a street 
waif, “ whether we could manage 
the fire. We could easily feed 
it, but could we build it ? ” 

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said 
Rob, enthusiastically. “ I’ll get a 
friend of my father’s who has 
lived among all sorts of people 
in Africa and India, and — and 
— oh, all sorts of queer people — 
Eskimos, I guess, and Alaska In- 
dians, I’ll get him to tell me how 
to build a clay chimney and strike 
a fire from flint. Then I’ll come 
and build your chimney myself, 
and I’ll let the fire go out and 
build it up new every week when 
I come, so all you’ll have to do is 
to feed it. But I’ll teach you how 
to rub stones together to get fire, 


PUSSY CAT TOWN 


— when I’ve learned myself, — 
and if it ever happened that it 
went out, you could light another. 
You mightn’t have matches, but 
you can always get stones. I 
guess you’ll be all right that 
way.” 

“More than all right,” said 
Tommy Traddles, with a look of 
relief on his part, for he had 
been worried over the approach 
of cold weather and the prospect 
of the Purrers having no heat. 
All the Purrers applauded Rob’s 
wisdom and noble promise to help 
them, and Ban-Ban’s fur stood up 
with pride, while he looked an 
“I-told-you-so” to the assembled 
cats. 

“We can bring out lots of 
woollen things and some wad- 

212 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


ding,” said Lois, longing to be 
useful too. 

Madam Laura smiled at her, 
understanding her feeling. “ My 
dear little girl,” she said, “you 
will do a great deal more than 
bring us warm things; we shall 
depend upon you for more than 
you dream of now.” And Lois 
was comforted even while she re- 
membered how queer it was to 
be comforted in this grandmoth- 
erly way by a particularly small cat. 

“ City government ? ” suggested 
’Clipsy to Tommy Traddles, re- 
minding him. 

“ I am coming to that,” said the 
doctor. “ So far we have not 
adopted any form of government; 
nothing has happened that re- 
quired laws. But, as time goes 

213 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


on and Purrington grows into a 
big city, we think we ought to 
adopt a government. What sort 
do you advise ? ” 

Rob tried to look wise, but 
only succeeded in looking em- 
barrassed, his face flushing darkly 
to his hair. You see he was but 
nine years old, and it flattered 
him tremendously to be consulted 
— by a Doctor of Claws, too ! — 
on such a serious matter. He 
did not know what to say, but he 
made a wise speech to begin with, 
and was encouraged to go on by 
the approving looks it won him. 

“ Well, you see,” he began, 
“no cat ever minds anybody. If 
he does what you tell him to it’s 
only because you happened to tell 
him to do something he meant to 
214 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


do before. So I don’t see the 
use of making laws for the Purr- 
ers. You’d better trust ’em to 
do what’s right, because they see 
it’s best for everybody. Cats are 
freemen, every one of ’em. So 
I’d have just a mayor and some 
Purrers to advise him, and let it 
go at that. I’m sorry I don’t 
know much about politics,” Rob 
added, apologetically. 

“ You couldn’t have said any- 
thing more clever ! ” cried Tommy 
Traddles, in high delight, while 
all the cats miauwed frantically, 
and Ban-Ban couldn’t resist stand- 
ing on his head between his front 
paws, though he had never let the 
Purrers see him do this, fear- 
ing it was undignified in their 
founder. 


215 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Those are my sentiments ! ” 
cried ’Clipsy, while Wutz-Butz 
remarked in a deep, admiring 
bass : “He might have been a 
cat himself, he knows us so well ! ” 

“ Then how shall we elect a 
mayor ? ” asked T ommy T raddles. 
“Who would be your first choice, 
Purrers ? ” 

“ Ban-Ban, Ban-Ban ! ” arose on 
all sides. “He is the founder of 
Purrington, and he must be our 
first mayor,” cried Posty, to which 
they all shouted : “ Must be ! 

Must be ! ” like a great mew. 

“It is impossible for me to 
serve,” said Ban-Ban, with deep 
emotion. “ I thank you more than 
I can say. I appreciate the honour 
done me, and shall never forget 
it. But I cannot serve. I posi- 
216 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


tively decline. May I suggest 
that the Purrers allow Rob to ap- 
point their first mayor ? Then 
no one can feel that his neigh- 
bours have preferred another to 
him. You elected me as your 
founder, and I thank you, but 
unless the founder has a claim 
there is no one whom you would 
like to pick out to honour above 
his fellows. So let Rob choose 
your mayor.” 

“ Ban - Ban is always clear- 
sighted,” remarked Kiku-san to 
Lois. 

“ I would appoint Doctor 
Thomas Traddles — ” began Rob, 
but got no further. There was a 
storm of applause, and the meet- 
ing saw the remarkable spectacle 
of a second election by acclaim, 

217 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


as it is called. Tommy Traddles 
was thus appointed Purrington’s 
first mayor. 

“ Why wouldn’t you serve, Ban- 
Ban ? ” asked Bidelia, suspi- 
ciously. 

Ban-Ban faced the meeting. 
His whiskers quivered, his fur 
arose, and his breath came quick 
and short as it always did when 
he was stirred. 

“ My friends,” he said, and the 
Purrers turned to look at him ; 
every cat there caught instantly 
the emotion in his voice. “ My 
friends,” Ban- Ban said, “ I must 
tell you why I refused the honour 
which you would have done me. 
To-night, when Rob and Lois go 
home Kiku-san and I are going 
with them.” 


218 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Dead silence fell upon the 
meeting at these words, and from 
its outer edge a long moo broke 
from Brindle like a sob. Then 
a growl ran around the circle, 
deepening into a louder growl, 
like thunder, and every cat sprang 
to his feet in wrath and dismay. 

“ Going back on us like that ? ” 
demanded Wutz-Butz, tragically. 

“Oh, Bannie!” said Madam 
Laura, but the words contained 
volumes, and Bidelia sobbed into 
her party-coloured paws, while 
every kitten present broke into 
a chorus of pathetic mews. It 
was most moving, and Ban-Ban 
trembled from head to foot. 

“ Dear friends, listen,” he said. 
“ I am not deserting you, as Wutz- 
Butz seems to think. Every week 

219 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


I shall come here with Rob and 
Lois — they promise faithfully to 
bring us, Kiku and me. I planned 
this city ; all summer I have lived 
here, leaving the boy I owned — ” 



Rob stared at this way of putting 
it — “ to miss me and mourn for 
me, and Kiku has done likewise 
with his girl. I have brought 
them here to be the aid and 

reliance of us all. They love us ; 
220 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


we have had the happiest home 
with them all our lives, and we 
miss them. They are most un- 
happy without us — do you not 
think, dear Purrers, considering 
that every week Rob and Lois 
are coming here, that all their 
lives they are going to protect and 
befriend this city of cats, that you 
can repay them to a tiny degree 
by consenting to give up to them 
two of your number ? ” 

“ Ah, but these two ! ” mur- 
mured Bidelia. 

The cats all wiped their eyes 
with their forepaws. “We con- 
sent,” said the Purrers, sobbing, 
and Dolly Varden put her paws 
around Lois’s neck. 

“ I don’t blame them,” said that 
sweet kitten. “ T ake me, too ! ” 


221 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Away from your mother ? ” 
asked Kiku-san, not at all 
minded to have even dear little 
Dolly share with him Lois’s 
love. 

“ Then, since it must be, let us 
pass the rest of the day as merrily 
as we can,” said T ommy T raddles. 
“ Let us sing my favourite air — 
you know it as ‘ ’Way Down 
Upon the Swanee River,’ Rob 
and Lois.” 

And then the cats sang the 
following song : 

“ When all the little willow catkins 
Had run away, 

And birch leaves clapped their tiny patkins, 

Like summer rain at play, 

Then Ban-Ban led us where the flowers 
Smiled through the dews, 

And bade us spend long, happy hours 
Beside our river Meuse. 


222 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Ah, we cats will love him ever, 

Absent though he be ; 

Cats’ mem’ries are forgetful never 
Of good, nor cruelty. 

“Go, then, dear Ban, since we must lend you — 
Lend, but not give ! 

We’ll purr our prayers that good attend you, 

All the long days you live. 

And when each week that rolls shall bring you 
To our pussy clan, 

May all good fairies guide and wing you, 

Ban and sweet Kiku-san. 

So this day sees not our parting, 

We’ll banish pain ; 

Ban-Ban and Kiku-san, departing, 

Go but to come again.” 


223 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


CHAPTER XII. 

WEDDIN G - BELLS AND BRIEF 
FAREWELLS 

HERE’S nothing harder 
than deciding on how to 
have a good time when 
one deliberately sets out 
to have one. A good time seems 
to be a fine sort of thief, which 
must come upon one unawares 
and steal away heaviness of 
heart. 

Having made up their minds 
to giving back Ban - Ban and 
Kiku-san to Rob and Lois, ex- 
cept for the weekly visit to Pur- 
rington which all four had pledged 
224 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


themselves to make, and having 
resolved on having the very best 
kind of time until the close of 
that day when their guests and 
the beloved cats started for their 
first home, the Purrers did not 
know how to begin having it. 
They were in danger of standing 
around discussing what to do in- 
stead of pitching into the good 
time without delay, just as chil- 
dren sometimes do, when some- 
thing happened. 

Down the road that led to 
Purrington two dots were seen 
moving nearer. When they had 
come decidedly nearer the two 
dots turned into two cats hurry- 
ing along. One was snowy white, 
as the sunshine revealed, and the 
other was a Maltese. 

225 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Here come your doubles, Ban 
and Kiku ! ” cried Bidelia. 

The Purrers were quite used 
by this time to the arrival of 
strangers coming out from the 
human city to seek the peace and 



“ Had often sat on a big volume of Shakespeare 


safety of Purrington, but this pair 
looked very different from most 
of the arrivals. The refugees 
who joined the Purrers were 
more than likely to come with 
“ lean and hungry look,” like Cas- 
sius. Indeed Tommy T raddles, 
226 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


who had often sat on a big vol- 
ume of Shakespeare during his 
youth, and who thus had learned 
to know the poet well, named one 
of these strangers Cassius for that 
reason. But this pair of cats 
arriving now were glossy, sleek, 
plump, and most elegant to behold, 
and the Purrers wondered at them 
as they waved their paws, making 
them welcome and signalling them 
to enter the gates of the city. 

The Maltese cat came up to 
the Purrers with a jaunty air. 
He was strikingly like Ban- Ban, 
with the same short, Maltese-kind 
of nose and the same up-and-com- 
ing air which the Founder wore, 
but the Purrers and Lois and 
Rob thought he was not quite as 

beautiful in figure. 

227 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


The white cat accompanying 
him hung back shyly. She had 
a less delicate face, more chubby 
than Kiku-san’s, but she had his 
gentle air. 

“ Gentlemen, your servant,” said 
the Maltese cat, bowing to the 
Purrers with an impressive air, 
and expressing himself in a man- 
ner which at once betrayed the 
fact that he had lived with a fam- 
ily where English classics were 
read aloud. “ My name is Ods 
Bobs, gentlemen ; it is a name as 
old as the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth. This lady is called Lady 
Blanche. We lived in the same 
house in town ; one of us had 
been brought up by one old 
maiden sister, the other by the 
other. Lady Blanche and I were 
228 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


looking forward to being married 
and living happily ever after, 
looking forward to spending our 
lives together to their end, just as 
we had spent them together thus 
far from kittenhood, when — 
imagine our horror ! — I learned 
that the person who had brought 
me up intended sending me away 
to her brother’s little girl, while 
Lady Blanche stayed on with her 
protector ! 1 1 was not possible 

to submit to such a fate! We 
made up our minds to run away; 
of course to run away together. 
And where were we so likely to 
run as to Purrington, of which 
we had heard such glowing ac- 
counts from other cats ? So we 
came ; here we are ! Will you 
receive us among you ? ”, 

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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ Gladly,” cried all the Purrers. 

“ Isn’t that the very strangest 
thing, that another Maltese cat 
and this little white lady should 
come here just when we are taking 
away Ban-Ban and Kiku-san ? ” 
whispered Lois to Rob. “It looks 
as if they had come to take their 
places,” she added, as Rob nodded 
his assent to her question. 

“ Then we will gladly stay,” 
Ods Bobs went on. “ But one 
thing more. We were to have 
had a pretty wedding on the day 
after to-morrow — no end of 
guests were invited. We can get 
on without the guests and the 
prettiness, but we should like a 
wedding, and to set up house- 
keeping for ourselves at once. 
Can we be married here?” 

230 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


The Purrers looked at one 
another, puzzled. There had been 
no demand for such a thing be- 
fore, and they were at a loss how 
to answer. Then they looked at 
Rob for a suggestion. 

“ I think the mayor can marry 
them,” Rob began, slowly, but was 
interrupted by Bidelia’s little ex- 
cited mew as she ran over to 
throw her paws around Lady 
Blanche’s neck, who was blushing 
till the tip of her pink nose was 
rosy red. 

“ The mayor ! ” cried Bidelia. 
“ T ommy T raddles — the very 
thing! We’ll give you the love- 
liest wedding, my dear! Come, 
Laura! Come, all lady Purrers, 
and the kittens ! We must gather 
quantities of catnip and make 
231 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


garlands for the hall. And order 
all the ribbon there is at the shop. 
Won’t you come with us, Lady 
Blanche ; we shall want to ask 
you something every five minutes. 
Why, you’re not much older than 
my girls ! ” 

“ I’m nine months old,” said 
Lady Blanche, through her 
blushes. 

“ Puttel and Dolly Varden are 
six months old — I’m only 
eighteen months old myself. We’ll 
have a lovely wedding ! I wish 
my husband was here, but he 
won’t come for a month. He 
went to the country with the 
family he owns very early this 
year, and hasn’t got back. Come 
along, my dears,” said Bidelia, 
hurrying away. 

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PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


The Purrers had never seen 
Bidelia so excited, and the gen- 
tlemen of the place looked at 
one another, feeling very useless 
indeed, as the ladies ran off, at- 
tended by all the kittens. 

“ I think we ought to offer to 
help them,” said Lois. “ Rob, 
Ban-Ban, Kiku-san dearie, let us 
go after them and ask Bidelia if 
we can’t help trim the hall.” 

It seemed queer to ask such a 
small cat as Bidelia if she couldn’t 
make use of them in some way, 
but the children were getting used 
to queer things, and to taking the 
lower place with cats, as mere 
mortals should. 

Bidelia said if they would wait 
until the kittens came back with 
the catnip, which they had gone 
233 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


to gather in the Public Gardens, 
she would be willing to let them 
help twist the garlands and hang 
them around the hall. Bidelia 
took the lead in these arrange- 
ments, as she was most fitted to 
do, by reason of her youth and 
taste, as well as her experience. 

“ How often we shall talk over 
these wonderful happenings in 
Purrington after we get home, 
you and I, and our two Blessings,” 
observed Lois, as they waited for 
the catnip. 

“We shall not talk to you — 
or rather you won’t understand 
us — between our visits to Pur- 
rington,” Ban-Ban reminded her. 
“You understand us a little when 
you’re at home — you often can 
tell what we want — but we 
234 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


can’t talk together like this out- 
side of Pussy-Cat Town.” 

“ I’ve been trying to think of 
everything I want to say to you 
before we leave here to-night,” 
Kiku-san added. 

“ Oh, how horrid ! ” cried Lois, 
who had forgotten this rule, and 
had been looking forward to long 
talks with Kiku after they were 
tucked away for the night. 

“It will only make us enjoy 
our visits to Purrington the more,” 
said Rob, wisely. And then the 
kittens came bringing the catnip, 
and they all fell to work weaving 
the slender leaves and blossoms 
into wreaths and garlands. 

In a short time the hall was 
beautifully hung with green, and 
the odour that filled it would have 
235 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


made one of those calico cats, 
stuffed with batting, turn a 
somersault. When the hall was 
trimmed Bidelia, never stopping 
to admire her own handiwork, ran 
off with her kittens at her heels to 
make her own toilet and her 
children’s, and to summon the 
wedding guests. 

Not a Purrer was lacking to 
the “ large and fashionable gather- 
ing which filled the hall,” as The 
Weekly Mews, Purrington’s paper, 
stated when it appeared on the 
following Saturday. 

’Clipsy played beautifully on 
his fiddle as the bridal procession 
approached. Rob remembered 
having once seen a picture of a 
Puritan wedding, in which the 
bride was represented as riding 

236 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


on a splendid snow-white bull. 
So the Purrers, acting on this 
hint, had got Brindle to allow 
Lady Blanche to ride to her wed- 
ding on Brindle’s back, and the 
effect of the very small snow-white 
bride clinging to big Brindle’s 
ridge-poled back was most im- 
pressive. The groom walked at 
the cow’s side, strutting along as 
proud as a cat, a duke, and a 
peacock, all rolled into one — 
and well he might be, for the 
Lady Blanche was lovely. 

Tommy Traddles stood on the 
platform waiting the bridal pro- 
cession. It entered the hall, pre- 
ceded by Puttel and Dolly Var- 
den, in immense white bows, as 
bridesmaids, and following them 
came N ugget, also in a white bow 
237 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


bigger, far, than his head, scatter- 
ing catnip blossoms before the 
happy couple’s softly falling, pad- 
ded feet. 

It was a most beautiful sight, 
and a deep purr rolled around the 
hall as the Purrers gazed admir- 
ingly at this first wedding in 
Purrington. 

Rob had drawn up the marriage 
service, which was brief and 
simple. 

“ Do you promise, Ods Bobs,” 
Doctor T raddles asked, “to keep 
this cat provided with mice all her 
life ? To protect her from damp- 
ness, crossness, and all other 
things she wouldn’t like, just as 
far as you can ? And to love 
her until she is white, not with 
this beautiful young whiteness 
238 



It was a most beautiful sight." 



PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


she has now, but with the white- 
ness of old age ? ” 

“ I promise,” said Ods Bobs, 
in a deep voice. 

“And do you, Lady Blanche, 
promise to nurse and lick this cat 
if he gets ill, to keep his house, 
and cook his mice and his catnip 
as he likes them, and to love him 
always, and not to spit at him, or 
scratch him ever, but be a good 
wife until you die ? ” 

“ I promise,” mewed Lady 
Blanche so faintly that Tommy 
Traddles had to bend down to 
hear whether she said : “ I prom- 
ise,” or “ I prefer mice.” 

But as her response was the 
right one, Tommy T raddles 
straightened himself and said, 
turning to the audience : “ I now 
23 9 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


marry these cats ! Lady Blanche, 
give Ods Bobs your paw to hold ; 
Ods Bobs, take Lady Blanche’s 
hand. You are now cat and cat, 
cat and wife. Keep your prom- 
ises and be happy for life.” 

The Purrers purred together 
the gay tune into which ’Clipsy’s 
fiddle at once broke, and the pro- 
cession left the hall as it had 
entered it, only in retiring Nugget 
did not walk backward, nor be- 
hind his sisters, but strutted out 
ahead of the bride and groom, 
and of the bridesmaids, as proud 
as Ods Bobs himself. 

“I’m afraid we ought to start 
for home,” said Rob, regretfully, 
as the Purrers prepared to escort 
the bridal party to the newest 
house in town, which, fortunately, 

24O 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


had not been rented, and so was 
ready for their use. 

“ And take Ban-Ban and Kiku- 
san ? ” cried a Purrer. All the 
cats suddenly remembered their 
sorrow, which the events of the 
past few hours had made them 
almost forget. 

“ Isn’t it strange — and nice — 
that Ods Bobs and Lady Blanche 
have come on the very day we go, 
and that they are white and 
Maltese, like Bannie and Kiku ?” 
hinted Lois, comfortingly. 

“ There are no friends like old 
friends; there can be but one 
Ban-Ban and Kiku-san,” mewed 
the cats in chorus. 

“ So there can’t,” agreed Rob, 
heartily. “ But we’re going to 
bring this one Ban and Kiku 

241 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


every week to see you. Don’t 
you think we ought to have just 
one cat, when we love all cats so 
much ? And don’t you think it 
ought to be this one, one for each 
of us, that we took care of and 
loved from the time they were 
kittens ? ” 

“ Oh, it’s all right, Rob, it’s all 
right,” cried the cats, eagerly, 
afraid Rob was offended. “We 
owe you even our best Purrer 
and our Founder — but we are 
sorry enough to let them go.” 

“Say good-bye, friends,” cried 
Ban- Ban, brightly. “ Ods Bobs, 
you’ll have to try to look still 
more like me, so they won’t miss 
me! Good-bye, Wutz-Butz; keep 
the town safe ! Good-bye, ’Clipsy, 
you fine fellow! Good-bye, 

242 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


Tommy Traddles, and good luck 
to your mayoring! Good-bye, 
kind Madam Laura, and good- 
bye, clever, charming Bidelia! 
Good-bye, three kittens, Puttel, 
Dolly, Nugget — keep your mit- 
tens ; remember you are three 
little kittens ! And we shall 
never be gone long. Good-bye.” 

Kiku-san silently took each 
paw in turn as it was proffered 
by the Purrers. He was much 
moved, but did not for a moment 
lose sight of the fact that where 
Lois was he must be. The chil- 
dren kissed every cat in the city 
between the ears, and renewed 
their promises to protect Pur- 
rington. 

Then the party of four passed 
out of the city gates. 

243 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ I hope you will never be 
sorry, Ban,” said Rob. Ban- Ban 
looked up in his face. 

“Mew,” he said, and Rob re- 
membered that, until their return, 
this was all that Ban-Ban and 
Kiku-san would say to Lois and 
him. 

Looking back, the children and 
their cats saw gathered on the 
walls of the city all the Purrers, 
just as they had seen them 
when they arrived. Again they 
were singing, and though as Rob 
and Lois walked down the road 
they could no longer under- 
stand the words of the song, 
Ban-Ban and Kiku-san under- 
stood them, and they were these, 
sung to the air of “ My Lady 
Lou:” 


244 


PUSSY-CAT TOWN 


“ We watch two shadows wav’ring down the 
roadway — 

Our Bannie-Ban and Kiku-san ; 

How heavy on our homeless hearts their load lay 
When they showed us where the home road 
ran ! 

We could not look upon our dear ones going, 
Our eyes would burn, our hearts would yearn, 
But that we’re comforted in knowing 
We shall watch when they return. 

Chorus ; 

“ Good-bye, Ban, we’re lending you ; 
Good-bye, dear Kiku-san, we’re sending you 
But for a little space, then turn your gentle face 
Toward Pussy-Town, where love awaits. 
Here we’ll live in joy and peace, 

But you will bring us joy’s increase, 

And when these children come, they’ll hear our 
loud purrs hum 

Through Purrington’s wide open gates.” 

THE END. 


245 















